Flying solo, but am I flying free? TTP Part 3
by SpikeyGirl
Summary: Max is in the Pegasus galaxy, so is Haku. Despite what her letter says the rumour is they eloped. There are a few reasons why that's wrong. What's life in Konoha like without the silver haired whirlwind? How do people cope when Max is only screwing with one TV series for a change? Okay, more that one, but this is Max we're talking about SEQUEL up
1. We're suposed to be subtle Max

Sup people, here's the first chapter of the third Part.

It would help if you know about Stargate Atlantis but I will try to describe anything you need to know.

I am also aware this is still in the Naruto category, but its the dominant part of the story for most of the time, Max will be using stuff from Naruto and I will be talking about the villages.

--

_Max seems to be doing well, she still seems a bit down and still has a problem with authority. When ever someone brings up her home she changes the subject, same with asking about people at home. She's probably in denial, and in denial about being in denial._

Haku's journal on Max's mental heath entry 1.

Stepping into Atlantis was nothing like Max had expected. She may have seen the series but it did nothing to prepare her for the things invading her senses. The stale air, no movement and barley any sound. The futuristic structure like nothing she had seen. The stairs that were lighting up as people spread out to dump things.

"Everything's through, you can shut of the gate" said Weir into her radio. A bottle of champagne was rolled though just before the event horizon dissolved.

"Max, you do know this whole city is surrounded by water," asked Haku quietly so not to alarm the others.

"Yes, is there anything you can do to raise it to the surface?"

I don't know, I will need to explore a bit" Max nodded and Haku disappeared.

"Rho, make yourself useful and find something to do, Duke, go with her and make sure she doesn't die" ordered Colonel Sumner the second part was only mentioned because he didn't rust her not to blow up the city.

Max rolled her eyes, at some point she would make sure he knew that she wasn't about to take orders form him unless it suited her. However, for now, she was fine with it, she had nothing better to do. She would scope out the living quarters, find a good room for herself, preferable with a balcony.

"Hey Luke, want to look around the living quarters?" Luke shrugged, he knew Sumner didn't like his presence her in Atlantis, just like Sumner didn't like Sheppard's or Max's for that matter.

It was a few hours later when Max got a call on the radio.

"All security teams return to gate room, repeat all security teams return to gate room" Max of course already knew what was happening, she had borrowed another radio and was monitoring both frequencies used. She had heard the report about the power drainage.

"Rho, why weren't you helping with the supplies?" Sumner demanded, glaring at the girl who was slouching in front of him hand in her pockets. What he didn't know was Max had a kunai in her hand ready to tell him to piss off if he grew too big for his boots

"You didn't tell me to, all I got was a 'make yourself useful' you didn't say who I had to be useful to."

"Go help McKay" Max rolled her eyes again and went to find the resident genius. It didn't take long, just head to the loudest yelling. She stood in front of the console he was examining at until he looked up and noticed her.

"What do you want?"

"Many things, but that Sumner dude told me to 'help' you"

"Oh, well you could get me coffee" Max rolled her eyes.

"Maybe if people had unpacked the coffee then I could. But unfortunately they haven't"

"Can you do something like that fire?"

"The fire is completely different, I suppose I could get you my special coffee, I never let that out of my possession…" McKay had been hooked at the word coffee in the sense she had some.

"What makes it special?"

"High caffeine content" Max rummaged through a pocket and fished out a scroll. She ignored the puzzled look and unsealed on of the sections. On the section a jar appeared filled with coffee. She could feel the puzzled look intensify.

"How?"

"If I answer that then I'm not giving you coffee. Pick"

"Coffee" Max smirked and unsealed a fire proof mug and a canteen of water. She held the mug in a fire-lit hand and waited for it to boil. She could tell McKay was desperate to ask but the fact he wanted the coffee more at the moment made him hold his tongue.

Max could tell he was glad of the decision the second he took a gulp. He seemed to light up and the second his hands touched the keyboard they were like a blur. Weir came up to both of them and gave Max a questioning look.

"Ninja coffee, he'll be fine in a few hours and its not addictive, I only drink three cups a day" Max said smiling innocently, she knew Weir couldn't see it but her tone conveyed the experssions. Weir didn't look that convinced but from Max's files it was normal for her to say something like that.

"Sumner's taking a group to a planet to find somewhere to hold up"

"You're telling me this because…" Max knew the answer she just wanted to hear it.

"We're new to this galaxy and its best if you can find out what we're dealing with if you're to be of use"

"When do I leave?"

"Ten minutes, try to follow orders. Sumner is in charge" Weir said tiredly, there were so many things going on she hadn't had time to stop for a few minutes. She went over to some other scientist to see what they had found. Max turned back to McKay to see him still typing away.

"You don't have more of that coffee I can have do you?" Had Max not been a ninja she would have heard a garbled noise but her hearing picked out the words. She thought about it wondering what exactly Weir would do if she got the smartest person here hooked on this stuff.

"No, I like my travelling privileges" Max decide, she watched him work for a bit longer until she was called to the gate area. Seeing as she was only on the balcony she decided to miss out on the stairs. She just jumped down gathering stares from anyone who had noticed her do so.

"The stairs aren't there for decoration!" Max couldn't help but smirk and made a point to never use the stairs if she could help it.

"I'll keep that in mind" Max said as she stepped back into the open wormhole.

Out of the team that Sumner had picked she was the only one who hadn't been given night vision goggles. Sumner had said that he didn't want her to break or lose them.

Max didn't really mind, she was better off with out them, she could thank her tenant for that. She had excellent night vision though she hadn't actually noticed she couldn't see colours as well as the average person. When she used FA she could see in colour if she chose too but she hadn't noticed the difference.

"Rho, scout on ahead" Sumner ordered. 'Oh so that's his game, he wants me to be the canary. Fine' Max thought and shushined ahead. She could hear Sumner tell her again not realising that she had already gone. She followed the two kids that passed her by without even noticing her.

"What is your business here?" Max heard behind her. She had forgotten the kids weren't alone.

"Seeing if my team will encounter any dangerous people"

"And you think they might be?" asked the man shocked at the implications.

"I was at their age" she could see the mans eyes widen.

"Why do you wear a mask?" Max ignored the question.

"I should report back to my team before they encounter the children" she said cutting of any further questions.

"I will accompany you to meet them" Max nodded and motioned for him to follow, they came to the edge of the clearing to see Sheppard and Ford pointing their guns at the kids.

"Leave them be they're only children who were playing" the man said getting between the guns and the children.

"Who are you?" asked Sheppard suspiciously.

"You two are so paranoid, do you really think if they were dangerous they would have gotten to you? Put down your guns or at least point them somewhere else" Max said pointing out that she was still there.

"How can you be sure?" asked Sheppard in the same suspicious tone.

"Please tell me someone other than Weir has seen my file. Part of my old job was seeing if people were trustworthy" Max said, she was tempted to post her file somewhere that everyone could see it. She knew nothing classified was in there so it would be fine. Sumner had noticed the group and came over.

"Who's this?"

"A guy from the village nearby"

"My name is Halling, I will escort you too the village to talk to the leader"

"Much obliged" grunted Sumner, he seemed put off that he hadn't made the first encounter. By the way he was looking at Halling he didn't like him. Max wasn't sure if it was just natural suspicion or the fact Max had found him first.

They were led to the village and Max decided to sit out on the talks. She wasn't planning on being bored stiff while being ignored by the adults.

"Why do you wear a mask?" Max looked down to see the two children looking up at her.

"I could ask you the same question" Max said looking at the mask on of them was holding.

"It's for a game, we were playing 'Wraith'. So why do you wear a mask?" the kid was getting pretty incessant.

"So people can't see my face"

"Why?" asked the other kid, it seemed like they were going to try to double team her like she and Laura had so long ago. Max groaned, it was going to be one of those times.

"I bet you're really ugly and hide it behind the mask," said one of the kids.

"I bet you can't be quiet for five minutes." The kid had gotten Max thinking, she was effectively hiding behind the mask. She didn't plan on coming out of 'hiding' yet though. She hadn't noticed that five minutes had passed until one of the kid made a noise.

"Can we see your face please?" Max could feel a twitch coming on. She hoped that the others would finish with their talks so she could get out of here. One of the kids decided she was ignoring them and began to tug at her shorts.

"If I show you my face will you leave me alone?" It had worked with her and Laura so why wouldn't it work with them? Both boys nodded frantically causing Max to sigh. She crouched down to their level and took off her mask removing part of her Henge to show her different coloured eyes.

"Whoa! You look really young, and really pretty" Max wasn't sure what to be thinking. She put her mask back on and straightened up.

"Thanks"

"How old are you?" Max groaned. She should have seen that one coming.

"I thought you two were going to leave me alone," she said ignoring their pouts. She turned around to leave only to bump into Sheppard. Smirking she turned back to the boys.

"Why don't you bu… I mean talk to this person?"

"He's a grown up"

"So am I"

"You're lying"

"How would you know? I never told you my age"

"So tell us so we can tell whether we were right" they had a point.

"I'm telling you I'm old enough to be a grown up"

"You're too short." Max had started growling until she noticed Sumner glaring at her.

"How do you know I'm too short, they could just be too tall?"

"What are they bothering you about?" asked Sheppard looking amused.

"My age," now that she though about it it was kind of stupid.

"Why don't you just tell them?"

"Then they'll ask me another question which I won't want to answer"

"Just answer them, for the sake of the relationship between us and them" Max glared at him and looked back at the current annoyances.

"I'm older than you but younger than the people I'm with"

"She's sixteen" Max scowled at him despite the fact he couldn't see.

"Seventeen today actually" Max growled.

"Do you know where babies come from?"

"I told you, they always ask another question, and yes, I do know where babies come from," said Max looking at Sheppard who just looked amused.

"Rho. This place is safe so you can return back to Atlantis" Max could hear the unspoken words he meant. He didn't want her to antagonize the kids to the point the adults break off the negotiations.

"Thank you. And you two, he knows the answer" Max grinned before heading back to the Stargate. She had been all set to traumatize these kids if they had pressed her for the answer. She could hear the kids now bugging Sumner about it.

Due to the fact the others hadn't bothered Max decided to scope out the area, just to be on the safe side. She took to the trees the second she was out of sight of the village.

It was about an hour later Max heard the gate activate and she headed directly for it. She heard a whining sound joined by another and a third. A plan was half forming in her mind, her goal to neutralise the threats before they got anyone.

She saw one approaching her and formed seals, with a whisper as warning she let loose a huge fireball. The craft had no time to evade it and was incinerated.

"Strike one" she could hear over the radio Sumner asking about the fireball. That meant he hadn't been taken yet. She scanned the sky for the other two, using her hearing to help. She saw one of them heading directly for her and she dropped to the ground doing some more seals. A wall of mud rose rapidly from the ground Max standing atop feeding it chakra to keep it strong.

In the darkness it could barely be seen but Max didn't know how good the sensors were. She saw it turn sharply heading up the wall she had made. Thinking fast she made some more seals but held back the last one for timing. Just as the craft had reached the top of the wall Max completed the final seal and spikes grew out of the wall impaling the ship on them. The chakra harden mud then liquefied filling the inside of the dart and causing it to fall.

"That makes two. Man, am I glad I bothered Hoshi into showing me a few of her jutsu"

"Rho. You would happen to know anything about the fire ball or wall of mud would you?" Sheppard said over the radio.

"Why would I know about that? Besides there's still one left, I can't see it"

"Its already gone, it took Teyla and Sumner"

"Who's Teyla?"

"One of the villagers we were talking with, report to the Gate"

"Will do" Max signed of and with out warning she dived of the wall catching a branch as she fell to propel her through the forest.

She reached the Gate not long later and almost bypassed it at the speed she was going. She got some strange looks about the way she had been travelling.

"If you actually read the file on me you would know how I do that"

"Were you the one who did the fire?"

"Read my damn file!" Max growled looking more feral then usual. She didn't want to tell them every single thing she could do, that's why she had a file. I was the _only_ reason she had a file.

--

The next chapter will have more about what's going on back in Konoha


	2. What do you mean I can't go?

Chem course work still in the making but, I'm almost done, so what do I do... Update :)

Probably wont be much longer till I start updating regularly again, but I'm going to see my schools production of Sweeney Todd tomorrow night so nothings going to get done then.

--

_While only being here a day Max has already shown that she needs to have a careful eye on her health. As always she is disregarding her health and from my observations since leaving the village she hasn't slept for more than a few hours every few days. She's acting as normal as she gets but is getting a bit antsy about not being allowed on mission other than the first._

Haku's medical journal on Max's mental heath entry 2

"What do you mean I can't go on the rescue mission?!" echoed down the halls near the central spire.

"You're needed here, Otter needs you help with something," Dr Weir said with as much authority in her voice as she could manage.

"It had better be important" Max growled before shushining out of the room to find the aforementioned ninja. It wasn't too hard, who else has an above average chakra pool.

"I need your Chakra"

"No 'hi, how've you been?' No 'are you busy?' No 'I do hope I'm not stopping you from going on a potentially action packed mission'" Max said her word getting bitter.

"I need your chakra. I've figured out if I turn a percentage of the water in the flooded parts of the city carefully then because ice is denser than water we should float to the top"

"Couldn't it have waited?" Max whined.

"No, this needs to be done now. In order for the water to turn to ice the energy needs to go somewhere but it'll need to be channelled first"

"D_o you think we could put it in the ZPM thing that is almost depleted?_ McKay, could you come to the ZPM room" Max asked, she was getting an idea. The door opened and McKay walked in.

"What, I was already coming here. I was wondering about something"

"Please tell me it wasn't something to do with the fire I can create"

"How did you guess?" Max looked at him and just shook her head. Some genius. "Anyway I was thinking-" Max snorted, "maybe you could try to fill up the ZPM with what ever you use to make the fire" The ZPM was the power source of the city.

"Methane? I'm going to assume you mean the energy." McKay didn't seem to have actually been listening as he was rambling to himself.

"Let's get this done with. I assume all I need to do is mould the chakra and transfer it to you? The excess can be siphoned into the ZPM" Haku nodded. It was an understanding that Max's chakra control wasn't brilliant and the control needed for this was something she didn't have. If she split it then it could work.

It was still risky, if she got distracted too much then she might use too much and hurt Haku.

She began a set of seals while beginning the first stage of meditation. McKay stopped rambling and watched as Max's hands started to glow blue. She finished the seals abruptly and the glow intensified. One hand was placed on Haku's shoulder and the other on a console nearby. Haku began his own set of seals some with both hands and some with only one. Both of them had their eyes closed in concentration.

"McKay, we're getting some weird readings, there's ice forming around the city, a strange power signal is being emitted near your position" the three occupants of the room heard this but only one acknowledged it.

"Its ok, Rho and Otter are trying to raise the city, they said there might be excess energy," McKay explained. The door opened again and Captain Duke entered.

"I'm supposed to be watching over at least one of them," he said nodding to the two shinobi. The city jerked violently causing the four occupants to stumble around trying to regain their balance. Max had been jerked out of her meditation trance almost hitting her head on the console nearby as the floor tilted.

The room shuddered again and Max did hit her head. Haku had been lucky, he had managed to keep his balance but he knew there was no reason Max shouldn't have been. In fact now he looked properly Max's Henge was fuzzy. The kind of fuzzy that a shinobi who hasn't slept in a week. When this was over he was going to have a little chat with her.

He tried to keep the ice going but with the connection broken he was tiring quickly. The power needed was huge but at least most of it was formed the jerks were form the city beginning to lift of the bottom of the ocean. It was about the point at which it wasn't about to float quite but it wouldn't sink had it been able to.

"Ookami? Are you ok?" Haku asked, he said it English for the benefit of the other. If he had asked in Japanese Max would have answered in Japanese then had to repeat in English wasting time.

"No worse than usual" was Max's dry answer. Haku sighed, Max's usual state varied a lot, at Hogwarts it was drunk, in Konoha it was normally hiding an injury from her latest mission. The nurses in Konoha had been briefed on her usual trick on hiding or playing down an injury. The only one who could find all of them without fail was Laura but only if Max stayed still for long enough. Here was a new place so Haku didn't know what 'the usual' was yet.

The three of them noticed Max attempt to get back into her trance but she couldn't. Haku suspected concussion.

"Drop your Henges" Haku ordered, he was going to check Max properly to make sure. Both McKay and Duke looked between themselves slightly confused.

"Max, I can't help you if you are this stubborn. Tsunade gave me the authority to over rule your orders should your health be in danger." He could hear the growl coming from Max, he knew he had just given away her name and the fact she didn't like people giving her orders didn't help.

"Can't I wait until we've raise this place? There's no point making sure I'm telling the truth if we all drown anyway" She snapped and tried to mould her chakra again bypassing the trance. Haku sighed Max did have a point, he felt out to the ice he had already made. He could feel the city on the verge of floating up he just needed to give it a small push.

He felt Max's hand on his shoulder and started the seals again, he could see Duke ready to catch Max if she fell again. The city shifted again but they didn't fall, they had been expecting it.

Haku pushed a small amount into the ice and felt the city begin to rise he kept the ice levels steady so it wouldn't rise too fast.

The second light flooded into the room from the sky Haku rounded on Max who panicked and turned only to see the door being blocked by Duke.

"You are going to get a _full_ medical check from Doctor Beckett before being allowed to do any duty," Duke said looking her directly in the eye. She didn't even have to look at Haku to know they he agreed.

-

In Konoha things weren't so great. Laura was about to tear her hair out from boredom. Without Max around to create some chaos life was incredibly dull. She wondered where Max had gone.

In front of her was a file on the latest case she had been assigned, she was currently the only one allowed to do solo work the others had partners but Laura had proved she worked better without a partner. She only had help if she asked for it.

"Hey Lou" She greeted the other girl currently in the house. Louise looked like she had only just got out of bed from the dishevelled hair and rumpled clothes. "Long night?"

"You have no idea, we're finally catching up with the rate Max and Itachi catch them. That's only because Max isn't helping now she's gone" Lou sighed as she slumped down in a seat.

"I bet Max has already been in trouble a billion times by now," Laura said, Louise nodded in agreement.

"I'll add the fact she's probably threatened at least seventeen people"

"I never thought I would say this but why can't she get into trouble here, I'm slowly going insane with all this paper work, everything's so boring"

Both girls were still sat at the table doing work when Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi turned up. The three of them also looked bored.

"I have never wished for an invasion more than ever" Naruto groaned, Sasuke grunted in agreement and Kakashi just seemed oblivious.

"What brings you three here this fine morning?" both Louise and Laura had their suspicions and the suspicion was.

"Food." Typical, at least they didn't have to ask who was cooking. Louise never cooked but when Max did she could create anything from the most amazing food in the hidden countries to the stuff that could melt rock. Max never did tell them why.

Itachi knew but he wasn't going to tell, he knew Max did it to put everyone of her cooking so she could skive off the cooking on missions and the like. He was currently on an assassination mission so he couldn't complain about being bored. Well he could, seeing as Max had always done something to make them interesting.

Tsunade looked at the sheet in front of her, it was a promotion for Itachi when he completed his current mission. Had Max not been a Sannin she would have been given the same promotion. Max's mission report from the invasion sat idly next to her booze.

She knew she should read it again to make sure she had all the details but it was so haunting. Though it was only because of that scroll she had seen how good Max was at acting. Sighing Tsunade took a swig from the bottle. It was something Max had left for her, something called Vodka. She needed to get some more of it. Maybe she should send Itachi, he might see Max and get the full story or at least know it wasn't his fault.

She knew he still blamed himself for not protecting her. It would kill him inside if he knew the truth but not Max's side of it.

-

Max was stuck in the infirmary. It didn't seem to matter that she knew exactly what was wrong with herself. As anyone could tell the doctor she knew that she disregarded her own well being so of course she knew how she got hurt.

She was lying on her stomach while her back was examined, Haku had told Beckett of the signs of Max using a Henge. She heard the door open and groaned. She was at least glad she had had the foresight to keep her bra on or it could have been embarrassing. Her head was tilted away from the door so she couldn't see who it was and FA was just too much effort after the amount of energy she had used.

"What is it that England does to kids these days?" Beckett sighed pausing in his examination to see to the new person. That narrowed down who it could be.

"Aren't you from Scotland, you've probably been to England too at some point" Max said rolling her eyes. She could feel the newcomer sit on one of the beds, the air moving around differently told her that much.

"How do you think I know what I'm talking about?" Max didn't have to even look at the doctor to know he was smirking. He was back to poking her scars to see if any were new enough to need to be looked at.

"You're a doctor, they're like mind readers, evil mind readers" Max growled. She winced as Beckett jabbed her side particularly viciously with a probe thing. "See my point" Max added, irritation evident in her voice. "None of these things need looking after! I'm fine!" Max sat up and pulled her T-shirt back on defiantly glad for at least the bra.

"I'm still going to say that you aren't going on active duty for at least a week," Beckett said looking sternly at her. He turned to his other patient while Max put the rest of her amour back on. Once she was done she looked at the other patient so she could see who to feel sorry for now she had annoyed the doctor.

"Well well, Alex Rider, that's a face I haven't seen in a while" she smirked. The patient looked at her puzzled. Max only shook her head, she reached up and removed her mask revealing her grinning face.

"Max!" Both of then heard Beckett groan.

"Figures you two would know each other"

"Alex! Long time no see, last time I saw you you were being hunted by Scorpia and I saved you arse because Mi-whatever were so up their own rectal cavity. What brings you here?" Max asked looking at the not-so-teenage spy.

"I could ask you the same thing," Alex returned.

The two of them chatted for a while catching up, since most of the time Max classified her own missions she was allowed to tell him what she wanted. Alex unfortunately did have confidentiality issues with his missions.

--

"ANBU captain? Are you sure?" Itachi was looking at Tsunade sceptically. Half the time he was coming back from his missions injured, it wouldn't do for his team to end up the same.

"The responsibility will be good for you, you'll meet your team tomorrow at training ground 15. They haven't got a particular specialisation but I'm sure you can find one" Itachi nodded and left after being dismissed.

One good thing came with the promotion. He had just one a bet with Max, they had been trying to get to the position of ANBU captain for a while so had made a bet on who would get it first. Max had bypassed it so her rank of Sannin didn't count.

Itachi just wished Max was back even if it was just for a day.

--

Review please my awesome readers


	3. Stowaways and stuff

Woo, Coursework finished! Sweeney Todd was awesome and I don't have school for two weeks!

I'm working on other stories as well though but this is still my main project

--

_For the past week Max has gotten very little sleep and so has been practising her panpipes. I suspects she has nightmare which is to be expected after the incidents. Unfortunately the sound carries a lot and Max likes the haunting melodies. She seems to be talking to something that is either invisible or nonexistent when she thinks no one is around. I've only seen this twice. She seems to be at odds with a member of a community we're currently housing._

Haku's medical journal on Max's mental heath entry 3

"Why do you have a girl with you?" Teyla asked looking at Max across the table in the newly christened briefing room. Both shinobi had taken of their masks while on Atlantis. Max glared at the woman, she didn't quite know what annoyed her about the woman. The fact Teyla was treating her as if she was 8. Alternatively, maybe the fact she just had a holier-than-thou attitude could be the problem. She was inches away from attacking the woman.

The presence of Rem behind her only slightly helped. Rem had taken it upon her skeletal self to give Max counselling and threaten her if she didn't try to be nice.

"She's here as back up" Max changed the subject of her glare to Sheppard, she was not a benchwarmer. If she could then she would be going on missions of her own.

"She doesn't have a flag on her shoulder like you are anyone else" Teyla some how managed to make it sound like a question.

"That's because-"

"I can answer my self, I'm not stupid, I don't have a flag because my village doesn't have a flag, we have a symbol as shown on this" Max explained tapping her headband. She did sound a bit patronizing so Rem clipped the back of her head, to her credit Max barley moved. Haku noticed but Max was weird like that so brushed it off. Teyla still looked confused while the others were frowning at her tone.

"I'm from a different planet as well, I grew up differently compared to them" Max added, she was leading Teyla into a confrontation so Max could gauge Teyla's skill.

"How differently?" Max could see she had piqued Teyla's interest.

"I grew up learning to fight, you give me a weapon, I can fight with it. I also have some other tricks up my sleeves" Max said a hint of smugness in her voice, she knew exactly what she was doing.

"And McKay has an ego" Sheppard muttered.

"I would like to see you fight, maybe even spar," said Teyla. Hook, line and sinker. Teyla probably thought she was going to see Max fail at fighting. She could see the smugness in Teyla's own facial expressions. People were so easy to read.

Haku however was sat on the ceiling observing this, he found it quite amusing. Max really knew her stuff when it came to riling people up.

He observed the confrontation it was a learning experience, one that most people would loved to have seen. It was one of the things she was well known about, she could piss of anyone with out them even noticing.

Maybe it was the psychology book Max seemed to swear by. Haku pondered 'borrowing' it to see what made it so great. Anko had read it and managed to keep it from Max while she reread it.

The meeting finished not long later and most of them headed to the area they had designated for sparing. Haku followed silently, planning on how to get Max's book. He supposed he could ask but there would be no fun in that.

It didn't take long to stretch, when Teyla handed her a set of practice sticks Max stared at her as if she was insane.

"You do know I'll end up breaking these, right? I'm used to the real things not the wooden stuff" Max said offhandedly testing the weight of the weapons.

"These were specially made so they are hard to break" Teyla informed her. Max shrugged, like it would make a difference to her. She would at least not use chakra unless she needed to, she hadn't set this up to lose.

The two fighters bowed and then started to circle. The observers backed away to give them plenty of space.

-

Laura was staring into space, she could tell Max was pissing someone off. Two reasons, one, it's what Max does most of the time and two, gut instinct mixed with number one.

She wandered down to the market place, he eyes picking out various movements, FIN training being the cause, being trained to see things that others miss. A kid wandering about aimlessly like her, a couple bickering about the rent, a genin team doing some rich persons shopping. Nothing new, nothing to break the now dull lifestyle. She tried to tune everything out, the noise was irritating her especially now the couple were full out ranting.

"Laura? You're going to walk into someone," Louise said waving a hand in front of the blonds face.

"Am not." Louise just laughed. Before they came to this universe Laura did nothing but walk into people or things when she had zoned out. It was especially funny when she had walked into the door frame on the way to a lesson.

Heading toward Konoha was a special visitor. Had Max have hung around she probably would have been roped into helping with the chunin exams. Not being ninjas, Laura and Louise had no idea about them while Sasuke and Naruto had forgotten, they were too busy on missions.

Gaara of the dessert, the Kazekage of Suna stopped at the gates of Konoha, his escorts higher up in the trees looking around for any sign of a threat. This was mainly for their own benefit. Gaara could hold his own against anyone.

-

The onlookers watched as both fighters twisted and dodged around attacks for each other. Both were graceful and neither had landed a hit. Haku could tell Max was holding back, he had seen Max sparring.

The spar had been going on for a good ten minutes before first contact. Haku had seen Max getting more bored, he had no clue why Max had stretched it this much.

The contact wasn't much, enough to push Teyla off the rhythm she was using. Max immediately had the upper hand and didn't fail to use it pining Teyla with a training blade to her neck.

"I think I win"

"You could have taken her in seconds, why didn't you?" apparently these people didn't miss much

"If I had you would have assumed I was just good at surprised quick attacks, this proved I can handle myself"

"_Doctor Weir, we have a small situation in one of the storage rooms, the one by Beckett's domain_"

"Be right there," Dr Weir acknowledged. Weir, Sheppard and McKay headed out, Max trailing behind so they wouldn't bother her about following.

At the storage room Max recognised the problem. Stowaways.

"Who are you?" Sheppard said getting straight to the point. Max recognised the girl. How can you forget a girl with wings?

-

Itachi was training a new ANBU team, he hated it, all of them were questioning his authority left right and centre. Unfortunately Konoha was low on high level Shinobi so he couldn't demote them to genin like he so dearly wanted to. They were acting like spoilt brats each of them wanting to be the one who shone above all others.

Maybe he would just stay home tomorrow, getting up just wasn't worth the effort if he had to deal with these idiots.

He ignored the challenge to a spar by the one with the badger mask, he just wasn't in the mood. How Max had dealt with being a teacher was beyond him, she had a shorter temper than him and he was barely holding his own.

He might have to bribe someone to swap assignments.

-

"Leave the poor girl alone, she doesn't want to be interrogated the second you see her" Max said stepping forward.

"I thought you were supposed to be assessing threats, how come you missed her?" Sheppard sneered.

"She isn't a threat numbskull"

"Look at the wings…"

"So having an animal's body part as part of an experiment makes some one evil?" Max growled.

"My name is Maximum Ride, I'm sixteen," the girl said, hoping to avoid the fight that no one doubted was going to occur. Max snickered at the similarity of her own name and the winged girl.

"Why are you here?" Sheppard continued the interrogation of the girl.

"Why don't you let me talk to her? She's more likely to talk to me than you" Max suggested. She understood Sheppard's reasons but he didn't have to be so harsh.

"You need at least one other witness"

"Fine by me, call either Otter, Captain Duke, or Agent Rider if you would prefer" Max said unphased by the looks she was getting. "She's not going to say anything with intimidation"

"How do you know?" Max chuckled, they clearly didn't believe her.

"Her eyes, there like mine. Now go away" At some point the three people she had mentioned entered the room. Max ushered the others out of the room and turned back to the winged girl. "So…"

"What do you mean my eyes are like yours?"

"The whole point of this was you answer my questions, not ask your own. Why did you stowaway?" the girl mumbled something.

"If I tell you something will you tell me something in return, like a trade?" Max offered. The girl looked at her assessing the offer the nodded.

"Ok, since you told me your name I'll tell you the nearest thing to mine, I'm Rho sometimes called Wolf or Ookami. So why are you here?"

"I'm going to sound crazy but I'm supposed to save the world, but every time I think I have I have to do something else, I just wanted a break"

"I don't blame you, I really don't. I've saved people, it's my job but it gets annoying. How did you get here?"

"I ended up at a warehouse and decided to get on one of the boxes; where ever it ended up I would make a new life, where is here anyway?"

"Now it's my turn to sound crazy, we're in a different galaxy" Max paused to let this sink in.

"Why haven't you asked about my wings? Its normally one of the first things people ask"

"If there's one thing you should remember, I'm not normal," Max said unable to keep the smirk of her face. The interrogation turned into a friendly chat as if they had been friends all their life, both kept some secrets.

-

Gaara sat in his place watching the finals of the chunin exams, he wasn't paying much attention to the actual fight, rather he was looking for his silver haired friend. He could recognise her friends but she wasn't to be seen.

"Something on your mind?" Tsunade asked kindly to the young Kazekage.

"Max isn't here, is she on a mission?"

"Something like, she became a Sannin and hasn't been seen since" Tsunade said, aware that her guard today was Itachi, if she said everything she knew then he would panic.

"Oh," They both went back to watching the fight. The team Max had briefly trained had all gotten to the finals. They seemed to have improved a bit but when Max had trained them they had gone up a lot. Maybe when Max came back she could persuade her to take the team on again.

She had no doubt in her mind that Max would return. She just needed time. Tsunade understood this, she'd done the same a long time ago.

The finals ended, Hoshi coming out on top, Max's friend recognised some of Max's tactics, creative usage of a clone and Henge, laughing manically in the middle of a fight etc…

-

Max was bouncing around the halls of Atlantis, she had nothing to do, the winged girl was being properly briefed and the other had jobs to do.

"Control room to Rho, you're needed in the briefing room" Max frowned, nothing was supposed to happen quite yet was it? She sped off and appeared behind everyone to listen into what was wrong.

A black 'mist' had been released by on of the kids who had gotten lost and it was following the power and draining it. Unfortunately no one had been able to track it yet so they hadn't noticed it following the thing with the most power. Max.

--

Reviews are like hugs, they make me warm and fuzzy inside


	4. Can I play with madness

I have a mild case of Writers block, I will keep writing it might take a while for chapters though. Before I post any chapter I have at least half of the next written, thats partially the reason for slow updates

--

_Max doesn't seem to show any fear any longer. I'm not sure if she fears anything anymore or if she has just gotten better at hiding it. She seems to have a cut of point, she'll go from extremely hyper to stoic to a bit peeved but never any negative emotions._

_She still doesn't seem to be sleeping. She isn't getting on well with the people also living on Atlantis, still playing the antagonist because of their ways and the fact they treat her like we would treat an academy student or a civilian. It's like Karma.  
_

Haku's medical journal on Max's mental heath entry 4

Max was running down the corridors keeping barely a few meters away from the black cloud that was following her. It stopped it from trying to fine another source of energy. She'd been doing this for that last few hours to give the others time to come up with a solution. She was also trying to get her Chakra reserves low enough that it would leave her alone when they did come up with something. She would try to get rid of it in one fell swoop.

Maybe if she sent a huge chunk of it through the gate… nah, she didn't have the energy to spare at the moment , then she would be confined to the infirmary until she was 'fit for duty' which would take entirely too long.

"_Control room to Rho, we have a plan to get rid of it, head to the gate, you will be given further instructions there_"

-

"So if she turns up I'll make sure she gets a mission to Suna to see you," Tsunade said to Gaara. He nodded then departed on his journey back to Suna. Tsunade had expected Max to maybe at least send a message to someone but no she disappears of the face of the earth. At least Tsunade knew where she was supposed to go.

"Thatnk you, are you sure you can't tell me why she disappeared?"

"I made a promise and the missions scroll no longer exists" Tsunade wasn't sure about that part, she had found it missing only a day after Max had left. She knew that Max had probably taken it or destroyed it first Tsunade had only said she wouldn't show it to people. Max spent enough times making loopholes to recognise one when she saw it.

-

"Rho?" Max cursed as she saw Alex at the other end of the corridor, she was trying to avoid people with the cloud on her tail.

"Get out of here, don't follow me!" Max prayed he would listen to her orders. He ducked into a room as Max practically flew passed. She finally reached the gate and saw it open, she missed the watery circle passing just over it to crouch on top and she leant over the back. The cloud flowed below going through the gate. The gate shut down when the cloud was gone.

"That wasn't quite the plan" Dr Weir commented from her place on the balcony. Max shrugged and jumped down.

"I have yet to actually use a plan and have it succeed," she muttered, some people raised eyebrows. "Do you need me for anything else or can I go?" she asked louder. Dr Weir nodded so Max shushined away. She didn't get far before Haku found her.

"Ookami. You're ignoring orders again. You need sleep, you can't not sleep"

"I'm fine" It didn't help that Rem turned up at that point.

"Hey Max, I need to ask you something" If it didn't have the consequence of a Psych eval, Max would have started to bash her head against a wall, the death god had been told plenty of times only to ask her something if she was alone. Talking to Haku doesn't classify as alone.

"Look Otter, I'm fine, my work has not been impeded in anyway, if it does then I will take your advice"

"At least stop creeping out the others, playing a haunting tune on the panpipes isn't helping everyone else's mental health"

"Let me guess, the kids are having nightmares" Max's tone turned sour, Teyla had lectured her about respecting her elders saying she was just a kid and knew nothing about what adults did. Max hated being grouped as a child.

"Max, at least try to get on with them"

"When they stop trying to treat my like one of the ten year olds then fine, I'll try"

"You're still not allowed off world are you?"

"How'd you guess?" Max said a bit disgruntled.

-

"Itachi you aren't taking any more missions this month, you need a holiday. Your team will be fine without mission for a while" Tsunade ordered the man in front of her, she knew that he wouldn't do anything like this unless ordered, he and Max were similar like that. At least there were more places he could go and not be attacked on sight.

"But I don-." No matter how much he hated them he would prefer training the team to a holiday.

"That's an order, I'm authorising you to travel to earth to prevent you from actually working or seeking out a fight here. Unlike some people you don't gather people who want to kill you where ever you go. It should be good for you, from Max's mission reports there are plenty of interesting places." They both know exactly whom she was referring to about the gathering enemies like candy on Halloween.

Itachi nodded and left, he got thinking abut the holiday, was Tsunade trying to imply something about the destination. It was entire possible to him that she could have gone to earth.

-

Three hours later Max was sitting upside down on the balcony attached to the room she had claimed. She knew they had the sensors working and would be confused when they tried to find her. She had asked Rem to just observe people quietly for the time being.

She didn't have time to react though when Haku hit her with a forced sleep jutsu, the shinobi caught her before she fell too far.

Haku had picked that time for several reasons, if Max needed sleep then she wouldn't be wasting energy to keep an eye out. She also would have remembered that Haku had seen most of her tricks, it wasn't the first time she had tried to hide under a balcony.

The medi-nin carried her to the infirmary, he could tell Max hadn't just been skipping out on sleep but food too. Haku could tell most of Max's weight was from the actual weights she wore.

He sighed as he deposited her on one of the beds under Beckett's watchful eye.

"I'm going to assume she's worked herself into a state of exhaustion"

"Just about, she needs rest and lots of it"

"I think I can managed to get her to do that much"

The forced sleep was a weird jutsu, unless the recipient was woken by some outside means they would sleep until they had caught up on any sleep they had missed. One of the reasons it was good to use on shinobi due to their active lifestyle.

Due to this Max didn't wake up for a week, Beckett had hooked her up to an IV so she would get some nutrients which she was lacking. Unless she had an explanation Beckett would be sending her to the psychiatrist, Doctor Heightmeyer.

By amazing luck and a ton of bullsh-ing Max got out of the sessions, she still was wary of sleeping she could still see the eyes in her dreams but she had tried to sleep.

"I think I'm gay" Max didn't quite know how to respond to that when Haku had said that. She looked blank for a second and nodded.

"How'd you figure?"

"I found your psychology book" Ah, that explained a bit to Max.

"And it turned you gay?"

"No, it turned me on"

"That doesn't mean you're gay, I mean Anko kept rereading it for weeks. I had to fight damn hard to get it back" Max remembered it and then remembered her plan of copying it to give to Anko for her birthday.

"But Anko's female-"

"If you say so," Max said chuckling.

"- and I think I want to experiment a bit too much"

"Good for you, it's about time you tried experimenting. Though with all these 'straight as ruler' people don't expect them to be as accepting"

"Did you experiment?" Haku asked. Max sighed, this conversation was getting awkward, she didn't experiment because she knew she liked guys.

"I didn't feel the need to, I know exactly who I like," they both know who she liked.

"I can see why Laura recommends you for relationship advice"

"She did what?!"

-

In Konoha Laura was laughing her head of for no reason, which she knew of anyway. The others had long since backed of and left her to her hysterics.

-

It came to Max's great joy that she was allowed on a mission, it was a simple explore and search for a ZPM. Sounds simple, it was until they lost altitude in the puddlejumper. The ship skidded in the loose soil before stopping just in front of a tree.

"You couldn't have put us down with a little more grace," McKay was complaining. Max rolled her eyes, she was just glad they were down, the breadbin shaped craft was marginally better than a car but she still disliked it. It could be from her experience in Vegas or just the fact she hate not being in control.

She was in her usual ANBU garb minus the cloak with her Atlantis jacket to show she was one of them. She had decided to keep her mask for the same reason all ANBU have them.

Two seconds after they had exited the Puddlejumper they were surrounded. By kids. With bows and arrow. Max had to restrain herself from lashing out or even laughing, she might be able to dodge them but the other wouldn't be able to. Not when they were surrounded.

"State you names and intention" For most people its hard to obey someone younger than themselves. For Max she just didn't like obeying people but she also knew it was important to gaining allies. "I mean it, we will fire"

"Major John Sheppard, I'm the leader of this exploration unit" Max was glad someone else knew that the odds were not in their favour. The others gave basic introductions, then it came to Max.

"Rho, general annoyance", she scratched her cheek as if her mask wasn't there.

"Remove your mask"

"Can't, facial disfigurement," she might as well start some rumours now. An arrow was pointed directly at her eye.

"Remove the mask" Even with her training Max would have a hard time deflecting an arrow at this distance. Max shrugged and removed her mask. "I don't see a disfigurement"

"Look closer" Max said, she slowly blinked removing the Henge that kept her eye colour grey. The red eye practically glowed, and the kid recoiled a bit before composing himself.

"Is that your disfigurement?"

"It creeps people out enough to hide" Max said, shrugging again, she probably could have lied and said she hid the other 'disfigurements' better but she wasn't about to give them anything more. Information was valuable no matter how inconsequential.

-

"How come all the shinobi with facial scars are crazy" Laura pondered. her latest case had been solved, each of the victims had had their faces cut up in the exact same way. This made it stupidly easy to find the killer. It had gotten her thinking though.

"That's like saying all of them are crazy, most of them have facial scars and most are crazy, but there are some with out scars that are crazy and some with scars that aren't," Sasuke replied, he had helped Laura apprehend the killer so she had offered breakfast.

"Stop poking holes in my theory," she pouted, "name one facially scar ninja who is sane"

"Iruka"

"Not according to Max, no teacher can be that happy and still be sane, especially after teaching her"

"Kakashi"

"Porn" Laura countered.

"I should've seen that one coming," Sasuke muttered. Louise picked that moment to enter the room.

"Did I just hear 'porn' and 'coming'?" she asked, Laura groaned, "Hey, not my fault, I only heard it"

"Lou, you've analysed people before, is it true that people with facial disfigurements are crazy?"

"Duh"

-

"I'm not crazy!" Max protested. She really wished Rem had stayed back on Atlantis or she wouldn't be in this mess.

"We aren't saying that you are" Teyla said in what Max could only assume was meant to be a mothering tone.

"If anything you're crazy, 'we' means plural and you seem to be on your own on this so you are probably imagining people. Referring to imaginary people is not something sane people do. That leads me to the conclusion that you're crazy"

"You are also talking to an imaginary person."

'My person isn't exactly imaginary,' Max wanted to say but it wasn't really a good idea. "No it isn't, I'm talking to my self, completely different," she said instead.

"Rho, go with McKay, he refuses to go looking for the power source without someone and Ford's helping me" Sheppard ordered. Max was tempted to not go just to spite him but then again she could get away from Teyla. She nodded and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

She was currently wondering what was worse, two kids who wouldn't shut up or Teyla questioning her sanity.

"Why do you wear a mask?" asked one of them innocently.

"So I can pull faces at people and they can't see"

"You're lying" the boy stated looking proud of himself.

"So what?"

"Why won't you tell us?"

"You're both annoying brats." The girl looked like she was about to start crying.

"Rho!" the tone of McKay's voice told her a lot.

"What?"

"Stop antagonising the kids"

"You'd do it too if they were bugging you"

"Well they aren't," he said smugly. Max stopped short of growling at him and dropped behind to were the two now depressed kids were lagging.

"Ok listen up short people, I have a special job for you"

"Why would we listen to you, we're annoying brats" Oh how Max hated the whine of kids.

"True but if you do this I'll give you some of my special drink that only adults are supposed to have, have you heard of coffee" Max grinned, at the magic word McKay turned, his eyes wide in horror.

"You are not allowed to give them coffee, I forbid it." Max's grin only widened.

--

Yes, I decided Haku can be gay, I blame the book that my imagination made up, someone was bound to turn gay from it. There won't be much with Haku's love life much like Louise doesn't get mentioned much.

Cookie for who ever can name the band who's song is the chapter title


	5. I'm not a canary, I'm a last resort

Well, writers block doesn't last long when I have too many lessons and a short attention span

After school lessons every Monday and Friday... Not good

--

Some of this may get a bit confusing due to the two Characters named Max, Maximum Ride will be referred to as Winged Max and Maxine will be referred to as Rho but ONLY when there both in the same place

-

_Max was marginally happy when she returned from the mission, after listening in on the debriefing I suspect it's because of the various things that she decided to do. The only injury form the mission was slicing her hand open while catching an arrow. _

_She still insists on antagonising the Athosians and I doubt that will change any time soon. Every time I seem to have her twigged she added a twist._

_I've recommended to Dr Weir, the leader of the expedition, that Max be kept busy and active. Sending her on solo missions was high on the list of things I recommended but Weir said she couldn't justify it because of Max's age. _

_Max somehow heard about it and suggested getting her own team, Weir is still 'considering' it but I'm doubtful of it happening._

Haku's medical journal on Max's mental heath entry 5

After the incident with the coffee Max was content with staying on the sidelines for the rest of the mission. She only interfered near the end. From experience being noble meant getting hurt. She had grabbed the arrow meant for the leader of the village to save him from being hurt.

Unfortunately she had miscalculated the speed and caught the arrowhead slicing her palm and fingers. She waved of any help offered even when getting back through the Stargate.

"Rho!" Max groaned, now Haku was going to get on her case. She'd spent the last hour avoiding people.

"What? It's no big deal, I'm still living and it's not bleeding" Max snapped.

"I was going to tell you to stop antagonising Teyla"

"Never!" Haku looked at Max, the girl had just switched moods in a sentence. Was she PMSing?

Max heard her radio crackle, "_Weir to Rho, please report to the briefing room_"

-

"You wanted to see us Tsunade-sama." The younger members of Team 7.5 minus Max were stood in front of Tsunade's desk.

"Due to Maxine's absence you will be getting a new team mate. I know you've worked well even without her but with the chunin exams coming up soon you need a third team mate to participate." Both boys kept their faces neutral, they didn't like the idea of a new team mate but they both wanted to take part in the exams. They couldn't have it both ways though. "You'll be meeting him tomorrow at your usual training grounds," Tsunade finished and dismissed them.

The two boys headed towards Laura's house, discussing the prospect of the new team mate.

"I hope it's a girl" Naruto sighed. Sasuke snorted, whether it was because of the stupidity of his team mate or amusement no one would be able to tell.

"I quote 'and you'll be meeting _him_ tomorrow', it's a guy, idiot"

-

"So you found a village that are offering us food in exchange for C4 which they will supposedly use for getting rid of tree stumps. And you want me to check them out. No, it doesn't take a genius to figure they're lying to us," Max argued, she was not going to go somewhere when she had no need to, not when they were liars and were willing to hold the city hostage for it. She remembered watching the episode with the Genii.

"My people have traded with the Genii many times," Teyla protested.

"Do you have bombs capable of blowing up planets or wraith ships perhaps? I didn't think so"

"Rho, please, just check them out, that is what you're here for"

"No, I'm not the canary, I'm the last resort, there's a huge difference"

"Why would you be a canary?" Teyla asked in confusion.

"On earth miners would put canaries in cages and lower them to see if the air was toxic, if it was then the canary died," Weir explained. "Rho you aren't a canary, but you wanted missions," from her tone she was loosing her calm face.

"I can't, Beckett did order me to take it easy for a while"

"Its just reconnaissance, nothing straining"

"So why don't you send one of your oh-so-talented people, I'm a specialist not a scout"

"Rho, why do you do this?"

"Do what?" Max asked innocently.

"Be difficult, you were practically begging for a mission a short while ago"

"Its obvious she was seeking attention but now when faced with the chance to prove herself she is not so confident" Teyla said, trying to sound wise in Max's opinion.

"Touché, yet I can't bring myself to care about what you think is obvious, I'm not stupid I know when someone's trying to manipulate me, Kami knows how many have tried"

"So if this all goes wrong, and people die because you were too pigheaded, then what?"

"When people die from my pigheadedness I'll let you know"

"How about if you do this then I'll allow you to go on more exciting missions"

"Ah, the winning formula: bribery" Max mock sighed. "Shame it isn't going to work"

-

"My name is Sai, I am your new team mate," the stranger introduced himself. Naruto glance between Sai and Sasuke before laughing.

"Which ones the evil twin?" he chuckled before heading off in the opposite direction.

Not a moment too soon as Sasuke set of in pursuit, no one made fun of him and got away with it. Except Max and Laura and sometimes Itachi, but only because they could kick his ass. Naruto was fair game though.

They were stopped in their tracks by the new kid. This didn't mean that Sasuke stopped his attack, it only meant they stopped running.

"We are supposed to be waiting for Hatake-sensei"

"He won't turn up for at least an hour," Naruto said flippantly, he dodged Sasuke's flying kick and delivered an uppercut in return.

"Then why did you turn up so early?"

"Just because Kakashi slacks off doesn't mean we do" Sasuke grunted as Naruto sent a wave of shadow clones after him.

"What did your third team mate do then?"

"Take pot shots at either one of us or join in, some times two against one, others just a free for all, thing is she wouldn't say which so we had to guess" Naruto remembered Max's wild trick, she would swap sides without warning, mostly to the person who wasn't fairing well.

-

"I can't cook" Rho protested, Weir looked at her clearly not believing a word. Both she and Winged Max were being told to get a 'full time' job. The first suggestion had been cooking, shame neither of them could cook or would admit to being able to cook.

"You need to find something to do, this isn't summer camp and since you refused the scouting job-"

"For a good reason" Rho interjected.

"You were being childish," Teyla said, Both girls turned to the Athosians.

"No one asked your opinion," Winged Max snapped. Rho had been happy to find she wasn't the only one who dislike Teyla.

"In my opinion, these two girls need more discipline in their lives," Teyla started, ignoring Rho's glare. "On Athos some children liked to run a bit wild, to stop it we simple gave them menial tasks to keep them busy until they calmed down, they would not be given an option as you are giving these two"

"You want food poisoning, be my guest"

"I was thinking more along the lines of watching some of the children when the adults can not"

"Did you read the mission report from my last mission? I made two kids cry then gave them coffee" Rho hissed.

"I wouldn't mind" Winged Max said shrugging.

-

"How come we have to do babysitting? We're not freshly graduated genin!" Naruto exclaimed seeing the mission scroll.

"The parents want the best they can for their darlings but I wouldn't let them have jounin," Tsunade explained. "Unless you want to find the cat again…" she said chuckling evilly. Team 7.5 groaned but accepted the mission. Tsunade remembered a time Max had suggested hiring the cat as a ninja just because it couldn't be stopped for long.

The mission wasn't too hard. When you compared it to espionage anyway… The kids were loud and whiny. Naruto didn't like them as they called him a poo head. Sasuke didn't like them because they called him a duck. Sai liked them because they annoyed the other two but left him in peace.

"Sai, stop hiding on the ceiling! Shoot, don't play with that!" Naruto said trying to get a kunai off one of the brats.

-

"Who are you?" Max demanded rudely as she walked into the briefing room, Rem floating by her shoulder. She knew the answer, it just made her feel better asking so she wouldn't slip up accidently later. Her trip to help out in the infirmary had been short and she had been planning some experiments. It looked like they would have to be put on hold though.

"I am Commander Koyla of the Genii, and who are you little girl?"

"Someone you should be afraid of"

"Rho, behave" Dr Weir warned. "These people may be new trade partners." Max couldn't help snorting but she didn't say anything.

"How many of those weapons can you actually use?" Koyla asked. Max's eyes widened, she thought she had hidden them better. Then she remembered she had shoved them in a pouch while working in the infirmary and dumped the bag on the table in front of her. Beckett didn't like weapons being present when people were working in there.

"All of them" Max said guardedly she could feel something bad going to happen. Rem watched this amusedly. She had been exploring the planet when Max had told her to leave her alone for a bit.

"I don't supposed you could lone us, Rho, was it? To help with some of the farming for a bit, we could do with the help especially if we were to have extra to trade"

"No pimping!" Max snapped before Weir could get a word in. The Genii looked confused at Max's words. "It means I'm not going to lend myself out or let anyone else lend me out" Max explained sourly.

One of the scientists ran in looking very panicked. "Dr Weir you need to see this!"

-

"Why couldn't we have a storm here, it hasn't rained in ages" Laura complained. They had been having trouble determining when people had died because of the heat. Louise walked in looking very tanned. Laura was surprised to see Lou; she'd not been seen for almost two weeks.

"Belive it or not but I was pale when I walked out of the interrogation building" Louise said with a frown. "This sun is ridiculous, you feel up to a vacation in Mist?"

"Is there a chance of rain there?" Laura asked sarcastically.

"Duh"

"Let's go then!"

"Go where?" Sasuke asked entering the room followed by Naruto, they both slumped down on stools by the island in the middle of the kitchen.

"Holiday somewhere where it isn't 200 degrees" Louise groaned. She inspected her arms for sun burn.

"Both Shikamaru and Itachi are on forced holiday, they've gone to earth, I suspect Tsunade wants to see if Max its there" Laura announced, the others brightened up a bit. The spark Max had was missing from the village.

"Shikamaru barely does work," Naruto said puzzled.

"Actually he's spent quite a while planning some high level missions"

-

"Rho, get through that gate to safety now!" Weir called over the radio to where Max was. Haku had gone with the medical staff but Max had eluded anyone trying to shepherd people through.

"No"

Why not? It's safer" Weir insisted. Rho never ceased to be confusing.

"I'm needed here more" Max said, she loved being cryptic.

"What do you mean?"

"Some how she knew this was going to happen, no matter she wont live long enough to gloat," Koyla said, his men immediately held guns to the two occupants of the control room. Sheppard was still trying to find the grounding station that would direct the lightning and shield the city from the huge storm headed their way.

"Aw, are you going to send you soldiers to find likle me? Oh and this is me gloating. You suck, I'm the best. And hey, I'm still alive, funny that," Max crowed over the radio.

"You're toying with the lives of the two in front of me," Koyla growled back. Max shrugged to herself. She was in her full ANBU gear for intimidation and sent clones out for maximum potential of scaring the soldiers searching for her and Sheppard. She herself headed to the control room, she had people to get out of danger.

The best idea would be to switch them with clones henged to look like them. Just as she was about to make the clones she saw Koyla fire at Weir. Acting on instinct Max switched with her and took the bullet to the shoulder due to the height difference. She ignored the blood oozing from her shoulder and grabbed McKay and Shushined to where Max had substituted Dr Weir to.

"_This_ is my job, not babysitting" she said, dragging both of them down the hallway. She didn't want to stay in one place long enough to get found.

"You're bleeding" McKay pointed out.

"Happens all the time" Max shrugged. She was smirking behind her mask, finally she could have some fun. She felt two of her clones dissipate, both of them having been found.

"Hey, Shep', where are you? First or second one?" Max asked over the radio.

"_First_." Max thought about this, He probably knew the Genii were listening in.

"I'll meet you at the second one" Max said. The two adults looked at her.

"The Genii have a radio, they've probably heard your plan"

"I'm not an idiot. They'll be waiting at the second one, which is why where going to meet Shep' halfway." Max explained, she headed off down the hallway creating four more clones as she walked. Three of them henged into the adults and one into Max's ANBU self minus the cloak and a bit older. "The Genii will however think they found all four of us at the second one" she grinned.

"How did you-"

"I don't have time to explain now. Hello, middle of invasion!" Max called. The two got the hint and hurried up a bit.

It didn't take them long to bump into Sheppard, as Max had expected he had been going slowly to meet with them and had no intention of getting to the second grounding station.

"Now what oh wise one?" McKay snapped sarcastically. Now that the Genii were at Sheppard second grounding station they couldn't get there and activate it.

"Watch and learn" Max said, they found a balcony to observe the guards at the station.

-

Exams are approaching fast so my update schedule is unpredictable


	6. Repelling invaders and searching

-  
~Dedicated to **abbyrules** for her birthday (May 9th)~

-

Exams be coming, my mock results haven't been great so I'm going to be doing a ton of revision, these exams are _very_ important.

--

_Despite Max's mood she has yet to fail at anything. Recently she helped repel an attempt at invading the city. Despite there being only four people left there due to the storm approaching the invaders were still driven off._

_Unfortunately she has yet to manage this with out getting hurt. Her mood seems a lot better, she seems to have more respect from the leaders of this expedition, both civilian and military. Possibly because she substituted herself with the civilian leader leading to her injury, or the fact she took down the invaders with only four clones and a good deal of acting._

_She seems a lot happier though, which is good. I'm not sure if she's still hiding her feelings but the happiness seems genuine._

Haku's medical journal on Max's mental heath entry 6

Unknown to most people it hard to get a clone to look like it's been shot, or injured to a degree that it bleeds. Max was one of the people who knew this, her whole plan relied on this being realistic.

She switched herself with the clone she had made of herself that would get 'caught' with the other clones that looked like Sheppard, McKay and Weir. This would also make the clones easier to control. To pull this off she would need to do a lot of creative jutsu work. She taped the transmit button on her radio down so the real group would hear everything.

"Hey McKay, how do you do this?" Max asked in a stage whisper, aware that the Genii soldiers could hear. Clone McKay scowled at her but told her, the group got ready to sneak in to the area.

The second the door opened they were surrounded.

"We probably should have planned this better," Clone Sheppard said in his dry manner. The four of them raised their hand in surrender. They were escorted towards the control room, Max had to be restrained by the end of it and the clones had some bruises and shallow cuts.

"Ah, we meet again Rho, I never suspected such a small person could cause any sort of trouble, let alone take a bullet for someone while taking them from under my very nose!" Koyla sneered bitterly. He turned to Clone McKay, "tell me how to uncouple the grounding station or the short one gets another bullet in her"

-

Itachi looked at the gun being pointed at him. The situation seemed surreal, was some one actually mugging him? Earth was defiantly strange. Shikamaru was beside him looking bored. They both feigned misunderstanding of the muggers words. Both of them had observed people speaking English to understand a lot of it.

"I said hand over your money!" the mugger screeched. Itachi sneered at him.

"Kage Mane?" Shikamaru offered, the words meant nothing to the mugger. Itachi shook his head. This was pathetically easy. In a swift movement he had stepped forward and pushed the gun to face the sky. He sidestepped the bullet from the second gun the mugger had tried to hide in his coat. An elbow in the face knocked the mugger out for the count.

"Pathetic. The academy students are better"

"We should get a move on, Max has a whole planet to hide out on. If we search the area around here first, she might be here as a double bluff thinking we would never look here. If we can't find her I'll hack into a computer and search the airport records," Shikamaru said, planning ahead.

"You take the south, I'll take the north. Meet at the mountain with or with out her once you're done." They both nodded and disappeared.

-

Tsunade looked at the documents on her desk. If they were accurate they would need all the help they could get. Akatsuki were on the move.

-

Max pressed a hand to her stomach trying to slow the bleeding. On of the Genii soldiers had broken the console and Koyla had blame the team and thus shot her. To make it worse it was two inches from her other stomach wound which was now aching.

"I think I should just finish her off, or maybe kill the woman she tried to protect" Koyla taunted. Rem made it this point to return form the job Max had asked her to do.

"You look like you're in a bit of a bind. Do you want me to kill him?" the death god asked.

"Five apples" Max said. Everyone looked at her in confusion except Rem who just nodded and wrote something. She could see the clones and knew Max wouldn't die so it was safe for the death god to kill Koyla.

"Is that your request for a last meal?" Koyla taunted. Max was silence for a bit.

"No that's your death sentence," she said slowly when she had counted to twenty. Ten confused seconds later Koyla collapsed on the floor. One of the soldiers confirmed his death. "Leave this place or face the same fate" Max commanded, she used a bit of chakra to create a small genjutsu. She dispelled her clones and picked up the Genii radio thing.

"Return to the Gate room, these people can go down with their city," she said roughly mimicking Koyla's voice. She got confirmation of them moving towards them. Over her own radio she told McKay to sort out the grounding station.

When all of the soldiers were gathered in the gate room Max altered the genjutsu she had weaved while dialling the gate. All of them saw waves crashing through the windows and ran through the gate eager to not be swept away. They expected to be back home but Max had sent them to Athos. It would give her enough time to get the rest of the expedition back before the Genii caught wind of what happened.

She only hoped McKay could get the grounding station working in time, she could feel the storm approaching. The adrenaline was beginning to wear off as she felt the full pain in her gut. Rem floated in front of her looking as concerned as a death god could.

"You were right you know, I can go to other planets via the death god realm." Max smiled despite the pain, she could send letters home, let them know she was still alive.

If she didn't bleed to death she was going to attempt to get over the events from the invasion.

-

"There's no sign of her, no records of her leaving the country," Shikamaru reported.

"I just wish I knew what happened, it could give us an idea of where she is"

"You heard Tsunade, she swore not to tell and the scrolls been missing since Max disappeared. What ever happened Max doesn't want people to know. Thought the last time she ended up like that was when we were at Hogwarts after one of the defense lessons. Again no ones spoken about it but I doubt Max forbad them from telling"

"We need to get to Hogwarts then"

-

Relief flooded through Max as she felt the shield go up seconds before the storm hit. She was sat on the floor leaning against the control panel, the strength had left her, after she had bandaged her stomach. Rem was opposite her, just talking to give something for Max to focus on. The world seemed like a haze over the next few hours. She could feel herself being moved to the infirmary and her stomach rewrapped.

It was almost a week before she was allowed to get up. Haku had been on his guard, he knew Max would normally try to escape so her resting could have just been to lull them into a false sense of peace. He was surprised that Max stayed put.

She had spent a lot of that time writing something and burning the paper when she didn't like what she had written. Though he had tried to read the bits of paper many times Max had never let him.

Max sighed in frustration, writing a letter was hard. She'd written up a mission report for Tsunade but writing a letter to her friends was really hard. Especially after what had gone on.

-

"I wish she'd told me." The two ninjas sat at a café trying to decipher what they had found out. Itachi was confused, it hadn't been hard to get an accurate tale of the defense lesson. He hadn't known about Max's fear, she had always seemed so fearless, invincible.

"Its common in Shinobi, their biggest fear tends to be betrayal by someone there really close too."

"It means I used that technique on her, the day I got it we had lost so much. I swore I would never use it on her. Yet she's probably experienced it twice, that's more than she should have" Itachi said sorrowfully. He could understand Max needing to get away, he felt he had betrayed her so much.

"It doesn't tell us where she could have gone either, we only have three days left before we need to head back" Itachi nodded. Both shinobi almost jumped out of their seats when a folded piece of paper appeared on the table with a scroll next to it. Written on the top of the paper was 'Tachi-chan' in Max's scrawl. Checking it for traps first Itachi opened it.

_'Tachi-chan_

_I know you're wondering where the hell this came from and even if this is me. I remember when you had to wear that dress, all because you slipped on some wet leaves. No one else knows how you lost that battle. Sure people remember the dress but I remember you landing on your arse because of those leaves._

_Now I've hopefully proved it's actually me I'll get down to business. I'm alive, amazingly enough I haven't done anything too stupid yet. You're probably looking for me. Have fun with that, tell me if you find me. I'll give you a clue, I'm not on earth, nor am I in the hidden villages or that planet._

_Now you know I'm alive and that you shouldn't worry I just want you to deliver the scroll to Tsunade. Don't read it! Tsunade's eyes only._

_I will write again but I don't know when, reassure the others I'm ok for me, Haku's also fine._

_Max_

-

Max lay in the infirmary waiting for Rem to return form her trip. In a bowl besides her were several apples waiting. She was eating one of her own.

She sat up when she heard footsteps approaching, they weren't Beckett's footsteps so she was getting a visitor, maybe. You could tell a lot about someone by their footsteps.

"You're up?" Max hadn't realised she had zoned out. She saw Alex Rider standing in the doorway.

"No, I'm still sleeping" She said sarcastically. Alex shrugged and exited the room.

He was back five minutes later. "You awake yet?" he hadn't quite managed to hide his smirk.

"Most people would think so"

"Good, Weir wants to speak to you"

"And she couldn't ask over the radio?" Max asked, Alex just shrugged in a 'you coming or what?' way. Max threw back the blanket and followed him to the briefing room. Already there were Weir, Haku and winged Max.

"Ah, you escaped then?" Weir asked rhetorically. "Down to business, after the events as of recent it's been decided to trial you four as a team" the group sat in silence, processing what they had just heard.

"Is that wise, Max is used to leading a group while Alex and I work alone. I personally hate being given orders. Haku works in the shadows. None of us are compatible as a team" Rho protested, the others nodding seeing the merit to her argument.

"You work with a team during the Genii occupation, besides in your file it says you have worked in a team many times"

"A team of me or a team I practically grew up with, even then both times they were shinobi, and I knew what they were capable of" Rho added, trying to build her case, she wouldn't have minded just Haku on her team but the other two she didn't know their fighting style.

"Before you protest too much I'll tell you why I've suggested this group, Max, with wings you can fly above and scout the area and you're good for aerial attacks. Alex has survived pretty much anything thrown at him and can think himself out of tight situations, he's also a very good fighter." Weir explained. Rho still wasn't quite convinced.

"Rho, you've shown that you can think on your feet and act as the brute force of the team, with the shear numbers you can make you are almost unstoppable. Haku is there because you need someone rational and a medical person on your team"

"I'm in" winged Max confirmed. Haku nodded in his agreement. Alex thought for a bit then nodded as well. Everyone turned to Rho.

"Fine" she consented.

"Right, Team Atlantis Thirteen, be ready tomorrow at 0900 for your first mission"

"We're so doomed"

-

'Pout', is anyone going to review, ideas are welcome

Thanks **Killerwing x Gaara** for your continued reviews, they make me feel happy =)


	7. Sneaking out the proverbial window

Updates will be scarce for the next month as I have exams as of this Thursday

-

_Thanks to my suggestion Max has a team. It is mainly of the people who don't have a job, a girl with wings called Maximum Ride, Max has hinted prior knowledge of the girl but hasn't said anything else. There's also a boy who used to be a spy at age 14 called Alex Rider, he was apparently the most successful spy they've ever had, Max has also met him before now. Then there is Max and myself. It hasn't been decided on the team dynamics other than I'm the medic and Maximum is the scout._

_Max may end up the unofficial leader of the team, both of the others have some sort of respect for her abilities._

_Our first 'mission' was… interesting._

Haku's medical journal on Max's mental heath entry 7

-

"From my experiences you name is a precious commodity. I've seen things that can kill with a name and a face. From here on you all getting codenames, you may chose your own and a back up just in case. It keeps the enemy guessing," Max briefed her team. If death gods could follow her to Atlantis it was quite possible they could drop a death note in this galaxy too.

"I'm Otter, I also go by Shard," Haku said. Max chuckled a bit, Haku like making weapons out of ice and sometimes they looked like shards.

"Cub or Scarlet." when he received confused looks he elaborated "like Captain Scarlet, I'm indestructible"

"Tawny or Hawk"

"Mine's more complicated, I can change my appearance as well, I go by Rho when I look like this" she henged into her Mu persona, she saw the recognition in Maximums eyes, "and Mu like this, if you suspect it's me in a different look call me Wolfie-chan"

"That was you in Japan!" Winged Max exclaimed.

"Yes"

"You were pretending to be a guy?" Alex asked slightly puzzled.

"My other alias had effectively died and Rho wasn't involved in the job"

"I can't believe Fang was jealous of you" Winged Max giggled, "He was the guy I was with, the one who was bleeding" the giggling turned infectious as Rho joined in.

"Well it's nice to know I have a lasting affect on people when I'm disguised like this"

"You crossdress often?" Alex looked a bit weary, he'd seen many things but Rho blew a lot of it out of the water.

"When the situation requires it. You would not believe how much more respect I can get as a guy without punching someone"

-

"All I want is a fecking book, how fecking hard is that" Laura fumed, so far it seemed every man and his dog had cut in front of her. She had travelled to a village fifty miles away just to get the damn book. She was ready to explode.

"ALRIGHT THEN! Everyone who has an XY set of chromosomes get the hell out of my way!" she roared. The people might not have known about genes but they knew enough to move out of the way of a pissed off girl.

-

Rho and the team headed to the control room each excited to be going on their mission.

"I'm sorry but until the recent mishap has been solved I can't allow anyone of world"

"That's fine," Rho said cutting of any complaints from the rest of her team. Weir frowned as the team left.

"So who wants to sneak out?" Rho asked the second they were out of earshot. Her eyes were full of mischief but the others looked at her sceptically. "It's like when a kid gets grounded because the parent doesn't want them to do something an older sibling did," she explained. "The only way to get the parent to realise not everyone's going to make the same mistake is by sneaking out"

"How would you know that, Anko was your guardian and she was lax about rules," Haku pointed out. The other two were looking confused, they figured Haku and Rho would have a lot of references they wouldn't understand.

"Otter, remember this, I've been on many missions, lots of them with runaways and lots of them with children in general"

"So any ideas where to go?" Tawny asked brightly to deter the mood that was threatening to settle.

"Pick an address and let's go while their distracted."

"We're going to be in so much trouble when we get back," Alex muttered, knowing his luck he would uncover a galaxy wide conspiracy.

"Nah, I have jammy genes, a silver tongue and political power and I know how to use all three, besides, think of it as team training," Rho smirked as she led them to the control room, they checked their equipment, each with a radio and weapon of some sort. Max had her mask on and her standard gear.

Max got out some paper and drew what looked like a very complex lot of squiggles, Haku knew the basic ninja tags and this was nothing like it. Max stuck it somewhere inconspicuous and then using a quick harmless genjutsu masking their movements they quickly disappeared though the Stargate's horizon.

"So what are we supposed to do now?" asked Haku looking at Rho.

"Explore, duh. Tawny could you get a birds eye view of the surroundings, see if there's a settlement or anything near by" Rho asked. They watched as Tawny unfurled her wings and took to the sky.

"Ok, the rest of you spread out, if you see anything interesting what's so ever, don't keep it to yourself, keep in radio contact" Rho said.

"Shouldn't we stick together?" asked Alex.

"Fine, go with Otter, Tawny can join you"

"What about you? I thought this was team training"

"We'll cover more ground this way, besides it is team training. We do this my way, no highway option"

-

Kakashi looked at the three boys in front of him, Sasuke and Naruto seemed to be glaring at Sai. It took Kakashi all of his ANBU training not to be doing the same. He didn't want to let this kid get under his skin. Only Max had ever succeeded and he had learnt from that.

"I don't care if he calls you dickless, Naruto, he's part of your team do not try to give him swirlies in the river with your Rasengan. Sasuke I expected more from you, kunai aren't for pining people by their undies to a tree in a wedgie, I don't care how good your trick shots were. And Sai, I understand you're new to this team but get this straight… even if you aren't. Do not EVER try to molest your team mates. I don't care if you were experimenting. Just don't" Kakashi lectured, Naruto and Sasuke at least had the decency to look sorry.

"Why did Max have to leave" Naruto mourned, "Seeing the showdown between her and Sai would be much more interesting than getting lectured." Sasuke nodded in agreement.

"Right, now then, sparring, two on one, Naruto you're on your own" Kakashi ordered, Sasuke scowled at having to team up with Sai but they grudgingly worked together.

-

"Rho! We need assistance here now! We've got space vampires." Max heard Haku over the radio. She quickly used FA to locate them and was immediately on the move. From her own searching she could see signs of small gun fights and scuffles leading in the direction of her team. As she moved through the trees she drew her scythe, more out of habit than anything.

She swung low out of one of the trees the scythe trailing behind careful not to catch it on anything. The momentum sent her straight behind one of the wraiths decapitating it. A quick enemy cont showed only four more, the one she had just killed had been one of two attacking Tawny.

She had drawn the attention of the other one and it fired a, what Rho hoped was, a stunner at her. She dodged it and sent some kunai at it. They had little affect as the wraith healed the wounds inflicted.

"Decapitate if possible or just fill them with holes," she ordered, Haku went straight for his own kill with the rare use of the huge sword previously belonging to Zabuza. It was normal kept in an easy to get to seal so it wouldn't hinder his movements or draw attention.

The other two gaped a bit at the sight of such a huge sword. Luckily Max had noticed the lack of focus and taken two more kills. There was one left, it looked ready to flee. A red blast of energy had it down on the floor. The team immediately looked for the source.

A figure darted forward slamming Tawny into a tree with a gun to her head. The guy was heavily built, the muscles visible and reminded Max of some of the bulkier Shinobi. His hear was in dreadlocks and she could see some small tattooed markings on him.

"I'm not wraith, I just want you to listen, and this seemed the best way," the man explained. Rho took one look and turned to the nearest tree and started to bash her head against it.

"I can see you're not wraith but that doesn't explain the gun to Tawny's head"

"Reflex," he said by way of apology and removed the gun. "How did you take them down?"

"Trade secret, what do you want?"

"You look suitable advanced to be able to removed implanted devices, I have a traced in the back of my neck, those things use it to follow me"

"Otter, can you?" Rho asked.

"You're helping him?" Alex asked incredulously.

"No, I'm asking if Otter could,"

-

"Naruto! I know what you're thinking! Don't even consider it! I don't care if Sai was being an asshole, I would have thought you were used to it by now"

"But-"

"Sai! What did I say about molesting your team mates?"

"I read in a book that you were supposed to experiment," Sai said innocently.

"What book?" Kakashi growled dangerously. He had plans for the book.

"I found it ages ago, it looked like a good ninja book so I read it. 'Psychology for dummies' I believe was the name," both Naruto and Kakashi groaned.

"Even when she isn't here she manages to muck around! How does she do it?" Naruto moaned.

"You've indirectly met the previous member of this team then. She wrote the book." Kakashi explained. Sasuke was just silently shaking his head in disbelief. It was defiantly so like Max, trust her to be the cause of there teammate's quirks.

-

Haku wiped his hands on his shirt, taking out the tracker had been difficult due to its location in the back of the guys neck, on wrong move and his spinal cord would have been severed. He had managed it though. The tracer lay in the palm of Rho's hand as she studied it intently, no doubt planning to cause trouble. He felt someone should stop her. It just wasn't going to be him.

"I'm Ronon Dex, from Sateda" the guy said, the first words he'd said after Rho had agreed to let Haku try. Rho gave the standard introductions using their code names. She was still looking at the tracer, she sealed it into a scroll knowing it couldn't be traced when sealed.

"Rho… What are you planning to do with that?" Haku asked warily.

"You really don't want to know" Rho smiled, the others shivered involuntarily. "So, Ronon, what do you plan on doing now?"

"Killing more wraith"

"Sounds good, I would offer to let you go to Atlantis but we aren't technically supposed to be here, and they would be very suspicious of you. If you met any other team they would be fine with you but we're…"

"…supposed to be back in Atlantis like good little kids" Tawny supplied.

"If you do see a team from Atlantis don't mention us please"

-

"What do you mean he was a traitor? Any information he's brought back it to be put under immediate scrutiny. Unless it has collaborating evidence from a different source then discard it," Tsunade ordered. She wrote out an order for the immediate apprehension of one of her jounin, the jounin leader of the team Max had substituted for.

"He was the one who warned us about Akatsuki"

"Damn, this could all be a plot to get us to lower our defences thinking the information is wrong" Tsunade growled, she could do with a drink. "We keep the place on standard alert, Team Kakashi should be made aware of the threat, and anything suspicious is to be reported immediately"

-

In the gate room of the city a seal started to glow as someone of the other side of the wormhole activated it. A genjutsu spread around the room leading them to believe they'd just had confirmation of a team returning and lower the shield for Rho's team.

Unfortunately there was a flaw in the plan Rho had laid down. It only affected people in the room at the time when she activated it. Weir had been told about it the second the Stargate had activated.

"Where have you four been? I thought I forbade any missions" Weir asked, her voice was dangerous. Her eyes seemed to piece the team's resolve. Rho stayed strong though, she had been through to much to allow something like that to get to her.

"If you want me to start listing the loophole I will," Rho commented of handily.

"Name one" Weir challenged.

"You said 'mission', I call what we just did, 'team training', I also don't take kindly to be effectively being grounded when there's no need," Rho smirked, even with her face hidden, Weir could still hear the smirk.

"Well now I have a reason. Team thirteen is suspended from gate travel except in emergencies until I say otherwise"

"Like that's going to stop me," Rho muttered, the smirk still on her face.

-

I have mucked up the Atlantis time line a bit but I'm using my creative license to make it work

Reviews are like oxygen to the fire that is my story


	8. Skydiving, grudges and funny memories

Half term, no exams for a week, another update

--

_Max has finally done it. She managed to piss off someone who decided to seal half her chakra. It wasn't all her fault, the fact one of Max's ancestors pissed of the person hundreds of years ago didn't help. Still Max pissed her off and is ignoring the facts she can't access half of her power._

_The woman who sealed it is an Ancient, an advanced race of beings who saw themselves as higher beings, most ascended to a higher plane of existence but a few remain. They're like really advanced shinobi. Form my observations its possible we're descended from Ancients._

_Max has hidden the seal from everyone, I'm not sure if it's a pride thing; hating to be seen as weak, or she's trying to pretend its not there. I can feel its still there. She's still a formidable opponent, she's adjusted to make her style more creative. Not that Weir likes letting her spar, even against a clone._

Haku's medical journal on Max's mental heath entry 8

"-and this is team thirteen," Sheppard introduced. Said team were in the mess hall watching the man show some priestess woman around and taking the piss. The four of them could tell he was attracted to the priestess.

"Nice to meet you four," the woman said looking over each of them, her eyes widened when she saw Rho who wasn't paying much attention, she seemed to be trying to write something. "What is your name?" the question was clearly said in a sharper tone.

"I didn't do it," Rho said quickly, trying to think of what she may have done to offend her already, she figured she just had been caught not paying attention. The gaze was a bit unnerving form the woman.

"She answers to Rho most of the time, I don't think anyone knows her real name" Sheppard filled in. Otter looked as innocent as possible, he was the only person who did know.

"What am I, some sort of dog?" Rho growled.

-

Hana was training with Kiba, showing him some of the more complicated clan jutsus.

"Hana, do you know a girl called Max? Silver hair and kind of wacky" He asked randomly.

"You don't remember her? She came round her quite a bit, though she looked different, do you remember Itachi? Both Itachi and Max were on my team" Hana replied, she was trying not to giggle at the memory of the first time her old team had come into contact with Kiba.

"They were on your team, wait…" Kiba's eye widened comically. "That was her?!" Akamaru gave his version of a laugh which was joined by Hana's dogs and Hana herself. "Maybe she doesn't remember" Kiba said hoping it was true.

Hana noticed something appear in the corner of her eye. It looked like a folded piece of paper, written on the front was 'Hana-chan and co'. Hana checked it for traps and let her dogs sniff it when the check proved negative. Her eyes widened when they recognised the scent. She practically ripped it open.

_Hana and co,_

'_Sup, you probably wondering 'what the hell'. You've probably been informed of the fact I've disappeared of the face of the elemental countries. You probably also wondering if this is actually me._

_Well, I have a story to tell to confirm it's me. I remember the first time I went round to your house, your little brother was a bit hyper and I almost had Akamaru in my face, literally. We all had a laugh at Itachi because Kiba wanted to play with him, then Kiba had the bright idea of what to play and I was dragged into it to play the princess. _

_I hope that that proves it's me. Feel free to annoy Kiba with that embarrassing memory. On to why I'm writing, I kinda felt bad that we lost touch and thought 'hey, I'll write to my old buddy and make sure she knows I'm not dead yet'. Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to let you reply. But on the upside every time I write I'll put in some sort of hilarious memory. _

_Also if you happen to find my other copy of Psychology for dummies can you do me a favour and hide it, especially from Anko, I actually want it back when I return. Yes, I will return, I just don't know when._

_Poke fun at Itachi for me and say hi to the others._

_Max_

_PS. Feel privileged, your letter was longer than the one to Itachi_

"What does it say?" Kiba asked brimming with curiosity.

"Max remembers," Hana smirked causing Kiba to faceplant.

"Wait, that's from her? How'd it get here? No ones seen her since she because a Sannin. Can I see it?" Kiba asked all in a rush. Hana glared at him and held it out of reach.

"My letter, not yours, oh and she says hi" Hana said "I need to go and show this to Tsunade-sama,"

-

"What were you writing at lunch?" Haku asked, both shinobi were sitting on the top of the central spire. Haku had made a diplomatic retreat for both of them when it seemed Max would lose her temper. From his observations the only reasons he hadn't tried to maim the priestess was because her mind was on what she was writing.

"Something that you don't need to see yet" Max said dismissively.

"_Rho, please report to the control room_" crackled out of the radios that both of them wore. Max sighed and got up stretching the kinks out of her back. Without warning she fell backwards over the side. Haku could see she was in control of the movement so made no move to stop her, instead he lent over the side to watch. Max was skydiving.

Max twisted so she was facing down before using chakra to stick to the wall just above the balcony leading to the briefing room. The momentum sent her diving through the thankfully open door through the briefing room and out to the control room landing on one of the balconies. Only skill kept her from injuring herself.

"That was fun" she commented to the confused people in the control room. They had been observing her journey on the city's life sign scanner.

"Ah, Rho, you were faster than I expected" Weir said looking a bit flustered, "Chaya would like a few words with you before she leaves" It took Max a few seconds to realise that was the name of the priestess.

"You see, if you'd told me that over the radio I wouldn't have moved"

"Which is why I didn't"

"Ah you know me to well," Max said wistfully "so where shall I get interrogated?"

"Briefing room. She's already there waiting"

"But I just came that way" Max whined. She headed back the way she came but in a slower way. The doors closed behind her and she was alone in the room with the priestess. She sat one of the chairs putting her feet up on the table.

"Who are you? What are you?" Chaya demanded. Gone was the passive priestess look and instead was more a warrior maiden. Max looked at her unfazed.

"Jeez, demanding much? How about I don't tell you,"

"Tell me, why can't I see? You're like a closed book." Chaya was sounding more frustrated than angry.

"Have you been looking into peoples minds? That's an invasion of privacy. If people were supposed to be able to read minds then everyone would be able to do it, Thoughts are private things!" Max fumed, she was thanking the only type of god she knew that she had her mind shields.

"You reek of death, your hands are stained and you feel familiar, but I can't read you!"

"Get used to it" Max said coldly, any respect she may have developed for the priestess was gone. Rem floated in through the window and Chaya screamed. "Great!" Max grumbled, the doors opened and some armed marines rushed in. Chaya was pointing an accusatory finger at Rem, then at Max.

"She is followed by Death!" Rem looked a bit hurt. It was how she lived, if she didn't kill she would die. It was like humans killed animals for food only death gods were higher up the food chain.

"She's been reading your minds," Max countered calmly, she was ignoring Rem, she had to diffuse this situation carefully.

"Morgana! You're Morgana's descendant, no wonder," Chaya sneered, "you deceive everyone you come across, only working for yourself, it's no surprise Death follows you"

"That means she had the ATA gene it's possible it could be as strong as Sheppard's" McKay started to ramble. Max sighed, Chaya was annoying her.

"Did Morgana do something to annoy you? I'm going to go with she embarrassed you, destroyed your credibility causing you to have to look after some back-water planet, And doesn't that make you over 1000 years old"

"You even think like her." Chaya snarled. Max was getting a truly poisonous stare.

"I was right, daymn I'm good. Wait, don't go blaming me! You can't blame the spawn for their ancestor's mistakes"

"Prove you're not like her then" Chaya challenged. Max glared at the priestess.

"I don't have to prove squat to you. Besides don't you have somewhere to be? Back-water planet ring a bell?"

"I will not let you get the better of me!" Chaya screeched causing Max to cover her ears.

"You sound like someone I know… actually pretty much anyone who hates me." Chaya growled in frustration and grabbed at Max's wrists in a steel grip. A white hot pain flashed through Max's body. When Chaya removed her hands some words written in Ancient were burnt into her skin encircling her wrists.

"My advice to you would be to not turn out like your ancestor" Chaya sniffed before flouncing out of the room past the stunned people. Max looked at her wrists and shrugged, she stood up and calmly followed the priestess.

"I suggest you never have kids," Max said sweetly before punching Chaya who had just turned to face Max. The priestess flew backwards over the balcony to right in front of the Stargate. "And never piss me off, especially not over some petty grudge"

-

"Please don't kill me, I'm too…uh… nice to die." Laura let out a maniacal laugh causing the boys in front of her to shake in fear. Naruto, Sasuke and Sai were all cowering on the sofa as Laura paced in front of them.

"I will find who took the last cookie!"

-

"Rho! What on earth possessed you to do that?" Weir didn't loose her temper often, Max was pushing it though. Sheppard was down right furious.

"One, we aren't on earth. Two, nothing possessed me. Finally, three, it felt good."

"Do you want to go on missions anymore?"

"She started it, do you want to know what she did to me? What the marks on my wrist do? Huh? She sealed half of my chakra. Do you know what that's like? Imagine someone takes half your blood or takes an arm and a leg" Max fumed. "She comes here and single handedly screws you lot over by taking your most effective line of defence"

"So you're now useless"

"I said half my chakra, not all of it. I still have more than Otter, I just have to use my techniques sparingly" Max said still upset. They were interrupted by McKay.

"Uh, can I borrow Rho?" Weir sighed and nodded. Max practically fled the room grateful that she hadn't lost her temper. She had felt the heat rising in that room.

"Thanks Otter" Max said, McKay changed into Haku.

"No problem, I did as you requested, it ready between the south and south west piers, Sheppard's too busy chewing out some other poor soul who spilled a drink on Chaya"

"Lets go skate then" Max smiled. They headed to the aforementioned place. Hake had turned it into an ice rink. They Max unsealed some skates. She'd planned this not long after finding out about the Antarctica base.

They both pushed of from the side, getting used to the ice. Haku was a natural due to his bloodline. Max had had a few lessons before in the other dimension so wasn't too bad. She had watch figure skating enough to know the basic jumps.

Both of them skated well into the night perfecting moves in case they had to fight on ice.

While doing skating they created a new chakra control exercise. They essentially created dull chakra blades on the soles of their feet. That way they didn't have to put skates on in the middle of a fight.

"Are you ever going to talk about what happened?"

"Someday perhaps. I suppose I should tell you a secret, you helped me out of a lecture when I was about to blow. The two things you caught me writing, they were letters home. I have a way of getting them back to people, nothing live but just a letter so they know we're ok"

"Who'd you write to?"

"Itachi and Hana, my first team mates"

"Tell me about it, the missions, the training everything. You'll feel better for it"

--

Thanks for the reviews my adored reviewers, another crossover coming soon


	9. Max, meet a smaller you named Toph

Slightly altered

--

_We snuck out again a few times, I think Max is doing this to spite Weir and Sheppard. She is practically going out of her way to spite them. After the incident with Chaya, the Ancient, Weir and Sheppard have been on Max's case about every single slip up. I think she's going to snap soon. When she does I hope to be far away._

_The first planet we went to was ok, they use elements too, only there are practically no wind users and everyone else can only use one. if that. Except one boy who's supposed to bring peace. Max set them all straight, it was good stress relief for her. A piece of advice, don't introduce Max to any religion, she'll tear it into shreds._

Haku's medical journal on Max's mental heath entry 9

"Which way do we go?" Cub asked looking around for anything vaguely interesting. All they could see was dense forest surrounding them. No signs of anyone even getting even close to the gate.

"I say we go that way," Rho stated pointing in no particular direction. It all looked the same.

"How come?"

"You wanted a direction, I picked one," Rho answered, she started to walk climbing through some twisted branches, no adult would have been able to fit, the other falling into step, Rho was glad they were kids, they didn't question her decision and could actually go where she did.

"Are you sure this is the way to the hot springs?"

"Louise, I'm a genius, of course not"

"How long do you think the lecture will be this time?" Tawny asked a while later, she was getting bored of the silence. They couldn't go too fast the trees were to densely pack still but it was defiantly easier than right up close to the gate.

"At least 45 minutes, how long until Rho interrupts the lecture with a random comment?" Cub answered. Rho studiously ignored the conversation while Otter listened in.

"Ten minutes, how many times will Teyla try to put Rho down?"

"At least 17, how many marines will be assigned to make sure we don't sneak out again?"

"Five each, how many times is Dr Weir going to sigh in the lecture"

"28, how many people are watching us with baited breath in case we turn out to be dangerous?" Rho interrupted, taking their attention to the shadows in the forest that didn't belong to the trees.

"4, two male, two female, one small mammal" Otter reported.

"That makes five." They heard someone snigger from the trees.

"Unless the mammal is a person I think the count was right"

-

"I don't class you as human, to me you are a prokaryote," Laura said glaring at the guy who had dared peep. She knew the guy wouldn't understand her but it allowed Louise time to hit him with a huge frying pan.

"What's a prokaryote again?"

"The kingdom name of stuff like bacteria, ya' know single cell organisms, reproduce asexually-"

"-reproduction for ugly people" Louise chipped in remembering the lesson.

-

"So you're saying you aren't even from around here?" one of the boys asked team thirteen he seemed to be a bit goofy, not the sharpest tool in the shed.

"That's what I just said" Rho sighed. She'd tried to explain it several times to the kids in front of her, she recognised the situation they were in, if need be she could take them out.

"So you don't know anything about here?" asked the kid with an arrow on his head.

"It's like talking to a brick wall," Tawny commented.

"In that case, I'm Sokka, most sought after guy." the older teens groaned, this was a waste of time.

"I said 'we aren't from a round here', not 'we're stupid', we also need to be going" Rho suggested, hinting to the rest of her team. She had seen a few episodes of this, and thus knew of the bending.

"You could come with us," the taller girl offered, "You're new here so you could probably do with a guide"

"What, and learn about the world from your biased point of view?" Rho sneered, the girl just assumed they needed help.

"What makes you think it would be biased?" the tall girl humphed. She obviously didn't like being wrong, a Teyla in the making.

"Intuition"

"You're lying," the short girl accused. The team could see a milky sheen over her eyes, a tell tail sign that the girl was blind.

"I lie all the time, the truth makes me look crazy," Rho shrugged. The girl raised an eyebrow, as did everyone else.

"Either you're better at lying than you let on or you're telling the truth," the blind girl decided.

"Mix of both," Rho smiled despite the fact the girl couldn't see.

"I'm Toph, the blind bandit, worlds greatest earthbender"

"Rho, general pain in the back side"

"Sokka's the goof ball, Aang is the naive twinkle toes and Katara is Miss Sugar Queen"

"Why are we letting the blind girl introduce us?" the boy identifiable as Sokka asked. The other two of the younger group shrugged.

"Otter is the one behind me, Tawny to my left and Cub to my right. You know, I think we can help you guys," Rho introduced, giving the positions for Toph's benefit. Her mind was going into overdrive to get some excitement out of the trip.

"How so? You are _new_ here," Katara sniffed, Rho figured she was still a bit upset about the whole 'biased' thing.

"Four kids, barely teens, wandering around a forest? Something isn't right here, we have more experience in anything," Rho stated, "we've got nothing else to do and in return we'll hopefully end up somewhere to get our bearings"

"Why do I get the feeling you're an older version of Toph?" Katara asked in a long suffering way. Said earthbender squawked indignantly.

"Because you have to group people and Toph is the nearest thing to my current attitude"

"Why do you assume you know that when you don't even know us well?" Katara was beginning to act indignant.

"It's what I do, I suppose you could call it my job. Why, don't you like me showing you up? If I said I was a firebender, you would immediately mark me as your enemy even though I haven't attacked you, you would assume I'm out to get you"

"Rho!" Otter reprimanded. He gave the others an apologising look.

"What? It's not as if I've done anything really bad… yet. I just wanted to say something, I hate people who judge so early after meeting someone"

"I think we can deal with our enemies on our own, we have so far," Katara said in a sickeningly sweet voice. "I doubt you would be much help against benders anyway."

Rho shrugged, it wasn't her problem, she would have ended up walking off anyway. She motion for her team to move out. "If you change your mind then it's your problem," she warned them, then they were gone.

"Why do I get the feeling you have a plan to make them regret it? And did you actually have any intention of helping them," Otter asked as they slipped between the trees

"Katara reminds me of Teyla," Rho said by way of explanation for both questions, the others understood.

"How come everyone with some sort of power has said or managed to get you to say that you lie?" Cub asked. Rho looked a bit taken aback, she hadn't expected anyone to pick up on that but then she remembered who she was talking to.

"There's a saying 'Deception is a trait all shinobi share', I, as a shinobi, lie to keep people alive and keep myself out of trouble." Otter snorted, Rho couldn't stay out of trouble, ever.

-

A letter appeared on the memorial stone as Kakashi sat there talking to it. Out of natural curiosity he glanced at it, checking for any obvious traps, then for any less than obvious traps when her recognised the handwriting. His name was written on the front so he assumed it was for him.

'_Kashi_

_Hey, it's me! You want proof? You should recognise this little story:_

_(Insert graphical porn of the homosexual variety)_

_Heh, anyway. Why I'm writing to you. No it was not just to destroy your mind, I wanted to let you know that I am indeed alive, not dead, not near death. Maybe a couple on new injuries and some marks from a pissed of priestess. (Not my fault…mostly) At least it wasn't snake face._

_No idea when I'm coming back as I'm kind cut off at the moment, I'm pulling a load of strings to get letters delivered. Haku's doing ok, and keeping me out of trouble._

_Ok I figured you don't believe that for a second, you'd be right, I don't think any one can keep me out of trouble. What can I say?_

_Make sure the others aren't worrying about me._

_Max _

Kakashi sighed as he finished the letter, he had skipped over most of Max's proof, and from the beginning line he could tell it was her work.

"Whatcha reading?" Kakashi groaned as his team turned up, they were going to bug him about the letter. He did not want Sai reading the letter under any circumstances.

-

"Who goes there?" the four of them looked slightly surprised at the fact they had been surrounded by men with swords on these weird rhino things. Well Rho had noticed, but not bothered to consciously notice.

"Some travellers looking for the nearest town, we got lost," Rho said projecting an innocent aura around the group as if they weren't doing any thing wrong. The others had long ago agreed to just follow her lead unless it was suicidal.

"Any of you benders?" one of the men asked gruffly.

"What's a bender?" the leader narrowed his eyes at Rho as if he could see something behind her mask. Rho was wondering if there was such a thing as too naive. The leader seemed to look over the group and be counting them.

"Four, two boys and two girls. You need to come with us"

"Where to?"

"To see the Fire Lord, we were told to apprehend any group of kids with two girl and two boys travelling without an adult"

"Sounds fair to me," Rho shrugged, "_keep your guard up,_" she said to Otter, she got a questioning look. "I was thanking my ancestors that someone had found us," she lied smoothly.

The walk to the fire nations capital was entirely to quiet for the group. They tried to strike up conversation several times only for it to be shot down. Rho had taken to talking to 'herself'. Well that's what the others thought. Rem had turned up so Max was discussing various things, Rem bringing new of what she had seen when delivering the latest letter.

The eventually reached their destination. Due to the Stargate being hidden in a dense forest that only the scouts dare venture into meant not many people knew about it but also it could be close to a city with no one noticing. They were brought to what they could only assume was the palace.

They were brought to a room a line of fire separating them from a man.

"Fire Lord Ozai, I bring children who were wandering in the forest"

"Fool! Do any of them look like vegetarian pacifistic Avatars? Every single one of them has some sort of visible weapon." The man looked at them with a critical eye, "though what would four… children as yourselves be wandering in a forest armed in such a manner?"

"We got lost," Rho said, feeling she should say something before it got to onesided. She was a bit annoyed about the 'children' remark though.

"Did I ask you? Did I give you permission to speak in my presence?" the Fire lord growled. Rho tilted her head innocently.

"I didn't know I wasn't supposed to. I'm not from around here. Also, for the record, I don't give a damn whether you give me permission or not"

"Spies!" the person who had escorted them accused. Rho held up a hand, the universal sigh for 'halt'.

"Are all your guards' idiots, or did you send them into the forest with the hope their stupidity got them killed?" Rho's tone had drastically changes from innocent to her normal sarcastic tone.

"You come here and disrespect myself and my subordinates. Execute them!"

"I bet this beats Sheppard's record," Otter chuckled. "I think it took at least a few hours after meeting a leader to get a death warrant." Rho took a step forward.

"I believe you have a way of settling honour disputes through a fire duel," Rho said indirectly challenging the Fire Lord. Rem who was watching was trying to decide whether Max actually had lost her mind.

"You, a little girl challenge me, the fire lord, to Agni Kai? It is below me"

"You're scared, what a shame, the great fire nations Fire Lord is scared of me. Fine send your best fighter," Max mocked.

"Rho, this may not be the best idea, we have no idea of how they fight," Cub hissed.

"You don't, I do, I know more things than anyone could even imagine," Rho said staring down the Fire Lord. The tension was thick enough to cut with a butter knife.

"You will fight my daughter, Azula, at three hours after dawn tomorrow," the Fire Lord announced, various guards and servants scattered to get things prepared.

"Rho, you are something else, we're here barley two hours and you're already antagonising them," Cub sighed.

"It's the way I work," Rho shrugged as they were led to a set of heavily guarded rooms.

"We never did find out what a bender was," Tawny observed as they entered the room the door being securely locked behind them. "But when we were walking through the city, a lot of people were playing with fire, literally in the palms of their hands. I think the Fire Duel is literally a duel with fire"

"It's fine, I have a plan"

"I'm glad for that, I don't feel like dying any time soon," Cub said falling onto one of the beds in the room.

"We may have a small problem, there are three beds and four of us" Tawny pointed out. Otter frowned for a second and shrugged.

"Actually it works to our advantage, one of us should stay and watch make sure they don't try anything underhand," Cub pointed out.

"I'll stay up, Rho needs her sleep for the fight," Otter proposed, he could work on less sleep like Max but as a medic he know the effects of it so chose not to most of the time.

"I think we need to check out the rest of the city. Tawny can you fly above the city and report back anything of interest?" Rho asked.

"Sure, just find me a way out of this room"

"The bars aren't closely spaced, try squeezing through. I don't want to draw attention here unnecessarily"

--

Spot the biology revision

Review please


	10. Mixed feelings

A lot has been added to this chapter now that I've finished watching avatar: last airbender. The chapter length is about double what it was.

--

_Max has defiantly gotten creative with her fighting, the first place we went she got into a fight. I think she did it just to test her limits with the bindings. It wouldn't surprise me._

_She seemed to react weirdly to killing, she showed that she doesn't like killing for no reason. She almost looked remorseful, then we found out the woman she killed was a psycho who was oppressing everyone with her father._

Haku's medical journal on Max's mental heath entry 10

The team found it hard to sleep that night, it wasn't because of nerves, it was because someone decided to practice singing in the room next to them. It made Rho's singing sound like an angels. There was a reason Rho stuck to the panpipes. She could only sing about three songs in tune from years of practice.

They watched the sun rise through the small window. Tawny hadn't returned yet but they weren't worried, if she thought it was too risky to return now then she wouldn't. At two hours past dawn a few guards collected them and lead them to a dining area. They were slightly confused until the Fire Lord came in.

"I won't have you saying that we mistreated you and cheated," he explained coldly. The team nodded. Rho and Otter moved their masks, they would only get in the way if this turned sour. Rho's was tilted across her face while Otter had his over the back of his head.

The third hour approached and they were lead to an impressive courtyard it seemed that any one who was someone in the city had turned up to watch. A raised duelling platform was in the centre, people crowding around it.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Cub asked, voicing the question the others wanted to ask her.

"How long have you known me? And when was the last time I mucked up?"

"True, but there's always time for a first," Otter reminded her, Rho looked thoughtful for a second as if remembering something but snapped out of it pretty quickly.

"What about if you died here?" cub wasn't giving up so easily.

"Then make your way back to the gate. I've been aware of my own mortality since I was eight, I've accepted it as part of my life. If I were to die today I would be ready for it"

The team noticed the group they had met in the forest watching.

"Announcing the Agni Kai between Princess Azula, daughter of Fire Lord Ozai challenged by-" the announced paused, not actually knowing Rho's name. An over sight made by all of them, Rho had insulted them before introductions could be made.

"Rho Shay, Champion of Konoha, Temporarily of Atlantis" Rho finished dramatically, she was using her usual last name, she had used it in Japan for Mu and on some other occasions. The crowd backed off Rho's team joining the sidelines.

"The terms are this: you are to fight until one of you concedes defeat or dies, anything goes. Do you both agree to this?"

"Of course." Rho winced at the voice of the woman who was obviously Azula. The crowd had previously blocked her view but now she could see her opponent as she walked onto the platform. Rho observed her mannerisms to get the basic idea of how she would fight.

From her first opinion of the woman she was to be fighting, Rho thought 'this is going to be easy, she's arrogant and crazy.' But then again so was Bellatrix and she did a load of damage the second Rho had put her guard down.

"I'm fighting her! Jeez give me some credit here, I said champion of Konoha, I was expecting someone stronger," Rho complained.

"Can you even fire bend?" Azula asked in a condescending tone, she seemed to have a permanent smirk on her face.

"Who needs fire bending?" Rho asked causing many gasps among the onlookers.

"Begin!" the announcer declared. Rho dodged the blue fireballs heading towards her dancing out of the way when Azula advanced on her.

"You see fire is so…clumsy," Rho said. She had made no offensive move to every one's confusion. She held a hand in front of her as if holding a ball in the palm of her hand, her other hand behind for balance. She was continuing to dodge the fire even flipping out of the way on occasions.

Azula was bit off put by the flippant nature of Rho's words. She sent wave after wave of flames but Rho was always one step ahead.

"All it needs is something to burn, it's not picky," Rho continued with her bewildering speech. In the crowd Otters eyes widened. He remembered how Rho fought and had seen one occasion when she had done something similar, he'd heard stories of this kind of technique.

Rho wasn't one for fighting on just a single observation. She had made a second observation more about how Azula held herself. From watching a few episodes she knew that Azula could use blue flames and lightning as well as the usual, this naturally generated a lot of heat.

Her clothes were probably fire proof but that probably wouldn't stop a flammable liquid from conducting the fire to the skin. A memory came to Rho, a chemistry lesson, her teacher was showing them various flammable liquids. What he had done was pour the liquid on a heatproof mat and set it alight, while the mat hadn't burnt, the liquid still had and the surface it had been put on.

What she remembered most was the fact it had taken a while for the small flame to set the liquid on fire. The liquid itself didn't burn, the heat had vaporised a bit and set the vapour on fire causing a chain reaction with the rest of the liquid.

"Given enough…persuasion it burns even the unlikely in an uncontrollable way," Rho smirked. She darted forward avoiding the fire particularly keeping her hand from it. In a way similar to the Hyuuga style Rho pressed points on Azula moving like a blur so not to be hit by the blue flames by accident.

She finished up and jumped back to her original spot. Azula continued to throw fire. Otter watched, confused, if Rho had done what he though she had done why wasn't Azula on fire.

"Persuasion for fire is heat," Rho said and everything clicked into place. while Azula had used the fire the heat around her had risen, heating the liquid Rho had placed on her. As Azula created a big fireball to throw at Rho, her clothes caught alight burning both inside and outside her clothes as Rho had predicted.

The liquid Rho had used had soaked into the clothes, which is why she had used a less flammable liquid. The flame was barley visible to the spectator's eye but the smoke more than made up for it. The black smoke thickened blinding Azula the burns had seemingly only been superficial.

Only then did Rho attack. While Azula was fast, Rho was faster. Azula managed to block a few of the hits out of luck more than anything else. A few hits cracked ribs and at least one broken bone.

"I heard you were a prodigy, I'm disappointed," Rho mocked. She kicked Azula in the stomach sending her flying back, the crowd scattering so not to get hit. Azula finally got rid of the flames and deciding not to risk that again, she went for physical blows, Rho deflected them with practiced ease, the princess's style was predictable.

"Eight points," Rho said cryptically, her mask had slipped over her face and she had made the eyes start glowing. Only Otter knew the meaning behind her words. He felt a burst of pride as he remembered Zabuza and how he used those two words to freak out his opponents.

"What do you mean eight points?" Azula choked out. She was getting scared, Rho took her crazy and raised it to almost schizophrenic.

"Eight points of a silent kill, which would you prefer? The spine? Alternatively, there's the heart, if I can find it? Maybe I should just go for the jugular vein, so unprotected, unfortunately that's a bit messy," Rho taunted in a childlike voice.

The crowds were stunned, at first glance Rho looked anything but intimidating but right now she looked bloodthirsty. Even her own team looked surprised, she always seemed to be the person to lighten the mood not darken it.

"I'm just warming up," Azula asked in an almost coy voice as she stood up in the smoke, her silhouette visible to the spectators. She was going to beat Rho in intimidation, it was her game, not this foreigners! She sent some red flames in the hope of getting her opponent to think she was tiring.

"Literally or is that just a saying?" Rho joked making Azula's words into a pun. She dodged the fire noting its change from the blue flames to red flames. She was showing off some of her more agile moves feeling Azula's rage rise. The red turned back to blue.

"Aren't you going to fight back, didn't you say there were eight points that you could chose," Azula taunted.

"Jugular it is," Rho said, sighing almost sadly. She disappeared from sight appearing behind her a kunai in her hand. "You asked for it," she reasoned before slitting across Azula's jugular in a quick precise move. Blood spurted out as the heart still pumped for a little longer, each spurt giving of less and less blood until it stopped.

Azula was dead.

"I haven't killed someone like that in a long time," Rho mused looking slightly dejected. She immediately dodged fire being thrown at her from all sides blocking some with jets of mud. "I won this, by your rules, I even asked her if she was sure"

"Agni Kai is a fire duel"

"You want to see fire?" Rho held out a hand and sparked it to create fire, the crowd gasped, she had just used two elements.

"You murdered the Princess," one of the onlookers pointed out.

"She asked for it"

"You killed her"

"Oh for the love of… look, I could quite happily commit genocide right here and now, don't give me a reason," Rho sneered she adjusted her mask and leapt out of the arena.

Otter dragged Cub to where Rho would land meeting Tawny on the way. He found her sitting on a log staring at her hands.

"It's ok to despise me you know, I won't hold it against you." Everyone knew it was directed at Tawny and Cub. "I'm a killer, spent most of my life killing to protect my family and home, I've only ever killed someone like that twice before"

"Like what?" Even Otter had been confused by that.

"For sport, in a duel, for others amusement, when I could have completely avoided it but went looking for trouble." Rho's word gradually got more fierce. "When we get back you can leave the team, I won't blame you, I would understand,"

"It hard to accept, you know, no one suspected you could do something like that" Tawny began, "out of all of the people on Atlantis you seemed the least likely to be capable of that. Even with that priestess woman, you didn't kill her."

"That would have been counter productive and I don't know how easy to kill she is. So far I've only killed one person during my time on Atlantis and that was Koyla because he was a direct threat." Rho leant back far enough to fall of the back of the log, she lay there staring at the sky.

"I spent a good couple of years of my life trying to avoid murderers and assassins, I don't think I can handle working with one at the moment. I'm grateful for your help over the times we've met but I don't want to deal with someone who hides the truth so much and kills so easily," Cub said. "It reminds me to much of the government"

"It's fine, I won't hold grudges about it," Rho reassured him, "do me one favour though, keep this quiet, I don't want to give Sheppard and Weir another reason to keep a watchful eye on me, it's hard enough to sneak out at the best of times"

"Does this mean were going back now?" Tawny asked. Rho shook her head.

"It's up to you, I want to stick around for a bit, make sure my actions don't result in something too bad," Rho wasn't totally irresponsible and as usual she wasn't telling the complete truth. She wanted to try to get a hold of her emotions without blowing up at someone. The rest of her team nodded.

"We should probably check in at least but we'll probably go back," Otter decided, the other two agreed, Rho didn't blame them.

She lay on the floor for a long while after they had departed. She had taken off her mask and any concealing henges, most covered up scars or tattoos. It felt good to not be hiding anything and it felt good to just be alone with her thoughts as Rho, not a killer, not a super being.

"It seems Sugar Queen was wrong, you can handle yourself against a bender," said a voice easily recognisable as Toph.

"Where's the rest of the little group"

"Looking for you, I heard about what you did to Azula." Rho winced.

"Don't worry about me not liking it, Azula deserved it, she was such a psycho, she would have done the same to everyone who got in her way, I just wish I could have had a go"

"I would have preferred to kill her in a fair fight"

"How was that not fair?"

"Proper fight conditions, both aware of each others 'bending' so mostly on tactics and skill. No observers. Most of the time I'm fighting for my life, no formalities"

"That reminds me, how did you create earth? You aren't a bender, you created it from scratch. I could feel it"

"Magic," Rho replied simply. She felt the other members of the avatars group approach where she and Toph were talking. She contemplated just disappearing, it would avoid a conversation that could go many different ways. While she was confident she could take them out if need be, she really didn't want to.

"Can you help us?" Rho groaned at the first words she heard from them. This was one of the directions she hadn't wanted to go in. Sokka had also just walked into a mockery.

"Yes," Rho said sincerely.

"Really?"

"Yep, I can help, I'm not going to though"

"Why not? You don't like them either"

"If you're good at something, never do it for free," Rho smirked, she wasn't about to do something like this for free if she could be paid. She wondered if she had just quoted some film she had seen, it sounded familiar.

"But-"

"I don't want to hear it, I probably should go somewhere" Rho said getting up and taking a few steps in what could be the direction of the Stargate.

"Could you at least teach Aang fire bending?"

"Nope, I can't fire bend." Rho then did leave smirking at the looks of disbelief on their faces. She almost go to the tree line before she thought of something and looked back at them. "I could help you with other things though, I don't need to be anywhere"

"What about the rest of your group? And what could you help us with?"

"They did have places to be. As for what I could help you with, I suppose I would be considered a blade for hire"

"An assassin?" Sokka asked.

"Sure, let's go with that"

"But you said that you don't do things for free," Katara sneered.

"I know, I also know about a black rock that fell from the sky. I was hoping I could trade my skills for some of it so I could make a set of swords for my friend's birthday," Rho explained, tugging a bit on their heart strings.

"Is that why you're here without them?" Rho mentally sighed, she would have to do a bit of life story sharing. She really wanted the sword though.

"It's not one of them, none of them use a sword, it's for a friend back home. I want to make up for running"

"Running?"

"Remember when I introduced my self for the duel, 'temporarily of Atlantis'. I'm only there because I ran, I ran from my problems before they could be explained"

"I don't think she's lying," Toph admitted.

"She's got to be bipolar though, she killed Azula just a half hour ago and now she's all sad about leaving her friend," Katara fumed. "I don't trust her, someone could have hired her to kill us"

"Look, if I was supposed to kill you I would have already, I would have no reason to prolong your existence," Rho snapped.

"She's right you know," Sokka pointed out rubbing his chin. "And you saw how she handled Azula, she could easily help us"

"But she's one girl, and she was only against one person," Katara protested.

"That's what an assassin is, I'm the best"

"So if we asked you to kill the Fire Lord in return for this sword metal then you would?"

"Sure"

"But isn't Aang supposed to kill the Fire Lord?" Katara argued, she seemed to be getting really annoyed by Rho's attitude.

"Oh, for the love of all that possess pink spots. Please tell me there is no prophecy or destiny bullcrap"

"The Avatar is supposed to bring balance to this world" Aang explained.

"And you're the Avatar I suppose," Rho groaned, she had hoped this would be an easy job, maybe she should have bothered to watch the whole of the series. That was her problem a lot of the time, she got bored with the story line or distracted.

"Is there a problem?"

"If I were to kill the Fire Lord I'll do it my way, you guys can take the credit for it. Now can we get moving, I don't like staying in one place unless I need to"

"Actually we were meeting up with some people, in a few days there's going to be an eclipse which renders firebending useless. We've planned an invasion for that day. We can go pick the metal up on the way"

"Sucks to be a firebender then," Rho snorted in amusement.

"What about you? Won't you be affected?"

"I don't firebend"

"But-"

"I really don't," Rho said clearly ending that line of discussion. They started walking through the forest, a bit of small talk kept the silence at bay.

Until a sensitive subject came up courtesy of Katara.

"Don't you feel any remorse when you kill?"

"Sure I do… when they deserve it, which to be fair isn't often in my line of work," Rho shrugged.

"But think about their families, how they'll have to return home to finding out a loved one is dead"

"So what, people die, circle of life and all." Rho smiled at the though of the Lion King.

"What kind of parents let their child become a killer? Or did you kill them?" Katara sneered clearly annoyed by Rho's smile.

"Someone's a bit touchy"

"My mother was taken from me in a raid when I was younger!"

"The only true parental figure I had in early life died in front of me when I was nine, all I could do was watch as she bled from a wound that I couldn't do anything about. I couldn't even get help as the people who did that were still close by, waiting," Rho said, her voice eerily calm. An awkward silence fell on them as Katara looked back on her words.

"I'm sor-"

"Don't be, just remember there are always people worse of than you, you may never meet them but they are there,"

"We should stop here for the night," Sokka suggested sitting on the ground and rolling out a blanket, trying to ease the mood. The other followed suit, Rho set up camp in a tree, the ground seemed too open. She did sit by the fire for warmth though.

The group then started on spooky stories, Rho wisely kept quiet, she didn't want to give them nightmares for the rest of their lives.

When Toph told them about hearing voiced in the mountain the kids were suitably creeped out, Rho for a completely different reason. When the wrinkly old woman appeared Rho had to suppress her urges to kill her, this was one episode she had seen, she knew what this woman was capable of. But she figured at least some of it needed to happen.

The woman led them back to an inn where they would stay for the night, one she was sure they were all asleep Rho snuck out, she didn't want to stay any longer than necessary, she would be back before they woke.

Rho headed up to the mountain, looking for the entrance to the cave, while she couldn't do anything without raising suspicion she could at least reassure them. She henged into a small child as she approached the mouth of the cave, nothing was going to lead it back to her. Holding out a fire torch she peered in the hole.

"Hello?" she called in a child-like voice. Her voice echoed down the tunnel and she waked down slowly, listening out. She could hear faint voices and sped up slightly. She slowed just before entering the main cave letting the people adjust their eyes to the flame of her torch. She allowed her eyes to widen at the sight of the people. She knew that as a child they couldn't asked her to even reach the chains around their wrists.

"What are you doing here child?" one of the adults asked kindly.

"I got lost, my mummy was going to the village but I lost her," Rho whimpered meekly shuffling her feet a bit. Then she looked up at them. "Why are you here?"

"We were kidnapped. I have a job for you, do you think you could get to the village and tell someone about us?"

"How do I get back to the village?" she asked innocently.

"When you get back to the outside of the cave, go straight ahead, don't stop for anything"

"I won't let you down," Rho chirped before running back the way she came. At least the people in there had hope. She returned to the in after shedding her Henge. It was getting lighter so she would probably get back before they woke. She didn't want to gain attention to where she had gone or even the fact she had been somewhere.

She resorted to sitting on the roof, she had heard movement in the building as he approached and didn't want to get caught sneaking in. This was actually the nearest to what she was used to stealth wise, in Atlantis, stealth wasn't any use due to the sensors.

When the others went to the market to get food Max decided to sort through her scrolls. Sometimes when she was in a hurry she would seal things into the first scroll that came to hand. The only thing that was all in the same place was her booze. She always kept that separate, it would be a bit embarrassing if when in the middle of battle she unsealed a bottle of vodka instead of a blade, and if she was drunk then unsealing a weapon was not a good idea…

They weren't too badly messed up but it did make her remember she wasn't actively carrying a firearm on her person. A habit she would like to get back into she thought as she attached the holster to her belt, adjusting the straps for a snug fit and slipped the desert eagle in. She had gotten a new one to replace the one she normally summoned. It felt comfortable against on her hip like it had before. A reassuring weight at her side.

She watched the others return with some basket with foods she couldn't recognise. She could feel them moving around inside, probably snooping now that the woman wasn't there. Not that the woman was that far behind. The gang needed to know this story though. She was invited in for the 'feast' and heard the sob story. The food had an overpowering smell for Rho and she avoided it. The other must have dead taste buds to be able to stand it.

Afterwards the woman took Katara into a field filled with red flowers to teach more waterbending. Rho followed, maybe she could suggest some of the ideas to Haku if she saw it in real life. She watched the red flowers die as the water was taken from them.

"Tonight I will show you the ultimate technique of water bending. It can only be done during the full moon, when your bending is at its peak," the old woman was saying.

"But isn't that dangerous I thought people have been disappearing around her during the full moon"

"Oh Katara, two master waterbenders beneath a full moon I don't think we have anything to worry about." Rho took that as her cue to start her interference.

"Not to mention an assassin," she added jumping down from a tree.

"Thank you for the offer child but it is not needed"

"I have been tasked with protecting this group, I will do my job, with or without your permission," Rho said coldly before walking back to the village to catch up with the others. She wanted to choreograph a meeting with the child she had been but she suspected Toph would see right through it if she used a shadow clone. She could just say she met the child when she had been wandering around, but then the child had run off again.

It didn't matter in the end they had figured it out. Rho only then realise the sun was setting, the full moon would be rising. She raced back to the forest sending her clones into the trees, she herself would not be at the confrontation, it was too dangerous, but shadow clones were just shadows, no water to manipulate. A group of three of them approached Katara and the woman, staying out of sight. Rho went to help free the villagers.

The second the woman started bloodbending Kataras body Rho's clone jumped down, she had altered the masks so there weren't all the same. A rabbit mask, a cat mask and a dog mask.

"You are advised to cease waterbending," the dog one commanded. Katara looked at them panicked.

"Get out of here! She can control you," Katara warned.

"She can try," The cat one said, humour in her voice. They watched as the woman changed her movements to try to waterbend the three of them. The two water benders looked at them in surprise when nothing happened, not even a twitch.

"How?"

"You can't waterbend when there isn't any water to bend," the rabbit masked one said cryptically. Each of them pulled out two kunai tied together with a length of ninja wire. Aiming one either side of the old woman the let them loose.

"You missed," the woman taunted as they skimmed passed her. Her expression turned to horror as she felt the wire surround her, holding her in place, arms pinned to her side. Each pair of kunai were embedded into a tree 120 degrees from the other two pairs so there was no weak spot the woman could exploit.

"You were not our target," the cat masked one said flippantly.

"Who are you?" Katara asked.

"Friends of Rho." Katara frowned even with the masks they didn't look anything like the people she was with earlier.

"Where's Rho? And what did you mean by no water to waterbend"

"Rho will explain what you need to know when she gets here, in the mean time do not drop your guard." there was silence, Katara was nervous around the cloaked figures, the masks intimidating her as was their purpose. She had barely seen them throw the blades at the woman, there was no way she would react in time. What if they decided to attack her. or the woman managed to some how blood bend them.

"Calm yourself Katara," Rho said as she entered the clearing, Katara turned to face Rho. "You will not come to harm here," Rho reassured her. Behind her the others stood with the previously trapped villagers. Katara looked back at the cloaked beings only for them to have gone.

"Where-?"

"They come and go, not unlike you and your companions. We should all return home and rest, tonight has been trying on everyone," Rho said almost sagely. The old woman was handcuffed before Rho released the wires. They all headed back to the village, Rho and Katara held back behind them, they needed to talk.

"Those three people were illusions based on real people. Like your bending I can sort of bend light to make it seem like there are people," Rho lied.

"But the knives and wire"

"I was there, I just needed to make it seem like I wasn't so she wouldn't try to bend my blood." Katara seemed to accept this explanation but she still seemed sceptical.

"Who were the people? You said they were based on real people"

"My old team, the one with the cat mask was the team leader, she died. Hopefully the other two are still alive"

"I'm sure they are"

Rho headed back to the gate, her work her was done. The Fire lord was dead. She had unique black katana ready for someone. She had also changed people's perspective on the world. People would no longer rely on the avatar to keep peace. They were mingling, the lines that had been drawn clearly before were now blurred. All from a few words spoken in different places.

--

Right, so Max is crazy... ANBU would do that to someone, but being human also can do that.

Review please


	11. Luna, pheromones and damn firebirds

I am sooo sorry about the wait, Writers block sucks big time, it's even worse when you know what you want but just can't write it

I have no more exams, if they let me drop biology now then I probably would have more time to write. Even though I have no more exams I still have school

--

_A random girl turned up, we're still puzzling over how she got here, and how she left. It comes to very little surprise that Max knows her. The girl's quite insane, though that statement could apply to either one. Ronon turned up, he's now part of the flagship team after Ford took a bullet to the leg when one of the idiot soldiers was mucking around._

_A bit later Max agreed to stop going off world without permission… as long as she got sent of regularly, I don't blame her, there's only so much that you can do unless you're a scientist._

_We had a run in with a guy and his herb, it basically made people smitten around him. Only three people on the team wouldn't have been infected, Sheppard had a cold, Max is aware of the pheromone and its affects and I can prevent the pheromone entering my system. _

Haku's medical journal on Max's mental heath entry 11

A blond girl wandered the halls not knowing where she was going, only knowing she would eventually end up where she wanted to be. She ignored the men she passed, each one gaping in surprise but magic prevented them from reporting it or stopping her. She had somewhere to go.

"Not another kid," one of the soldiers commented before going back to what he was doing. It wasn't his job to keep track of the teens.

Max was in a briefing for her first official with Haku as her only official team mate, they were going to be shadowing the flagship team of Sheppard's. Ronon had turned and thankfully not mentioned previously meeting Max and HAku.

"You still have a death god following you." Six heads spun to face the newcomer. Max stayed still with a smirk.

"Hey Luna, long time no see." Max could have sworn she heard heads hit the table. Of course Max would know the new person. At least they weren't questioning the god of death thing. Rem looked mildly amused at the girl.

"Max care to explain?" Weir asked gesturing at Luna.

"If I knew then sure, I would love to explain but I haven't a clue. All I can say is that I went to the same school as Luna for a while"

"You don't strike me as the kind of person who want to school," McKay commented. Max ignored the possible insult.

"It was a job on earth, I've been to a few schools on earth, some prestigious, some not so much, you really think I became like this without going to school?" Max could tell they were dying to ask which schools. Luna took her wand out from behind her ear and started to idly polish it dragging the attention back to the fact she was there.

"So, Luna, what brings you across a galaxy?" Max asked cheerily.

"I read somewhere that the Crumple-Horned Snorkack migrated here a few hundred years ago, it would explain why I can't find them on earth," Luna explained, pretty much everyone but Max was lost.

"That's nice, you seen any sign of them?" The people looked at Max wondering if she believed Luna or was just playing along.

"Not yet. They miss you, he misses you," Luna said, now even Max was confused and slightly worried.

"The Crumple-Horned's?"

"No, the people you left behind"

"We should take this discussion somewhere else," Max suggested hastily and practically dragged Luna out of the room to and unused area just off the Gate room. "What do you mean by that?"

"They miss you back in the leaves, you should visit them but not stay, then when they come to you here, you should go back with them. The next time you chance comes it will be too late," Luna told her cryptically.

"I… but… I'm confused," Max admitted.

"You miss him too"

"Which him?" Max asked, figured who it was but wanted to confirm it.

"You know who I mean," Luna said.

"How are you so perceptive?"

"It's a gift" Luna smirked, Max couldn't help but smile, any time someone asked her about how she was so smartarse she would reply in the same way.

"So what brings you across a galaxy? Apart from the Crumple-Horned Snorkack hunt"

"I wanted to see the lost city"

"Not so lost at the moment," they both shared a giggle. "You going to tell me how you got here?"

"No, where would the fun in that be" Luna smiled in a distracted way looking behind Max. Out of reflex Max looked as well, there was nothing there she heard Rem laugh. Turning back she saw Luna was gone. Max shrugged, taking advantage of the situation she took out a piece of paper and handed it to Rem. Rem nodded then flew off.

"I really should know that trick by now, I've used it enough times and with Luna, well she's got the look just right," Max mused as she headed back to the briefing room. "She's gone"

"Why was she here, how did she get here?" Max held up a hand to stop the questions.

"What am I, psychic? I don't know. Can we get on with the mission, forget she was here?"

"It was a breech of security!"

"So is me walking out when I please, this is one of the many things you can't do anything about it and one for the few things even I can't prevent" Max explained, hinting they should drop it.

"You're going to give people on this expedition grey hairs," Sheppard groaned, he recognised Max's glossing over the subject.

"Tell me about it" Max said cheekily gesturing to her own hair colour.

It took about five more minutes to finish the briefing and the team and a half were good to go. They took a puddle jumper; it would allow them to search the area for any life with greater ease. McKay wanted some Stargates to make a network back to the Milky Way so if they found any with no life they planed to 'borrow' it.

Max didn't like flying in a puddle jumper, neither did Haku for that matter, the inertial dampers took most of the G-forces out. As ninjas they were used to being able to feel the forces to determine things, not being able to feel it was disconcerting.

They spotted a village so landed in a clearing near by. Out of habit both Max and Haku henged into less threatening figures. They didn't want to scare the village too much. Max sniggered at Haku's very feminine form.

They were greeted with open arms, immediately making Max suspicious. Everyone was acting happy without a care in the world. This just annoyed Max, but she was the kind of person who enjoyed bursting bubbles.

Before they noticed her presence too much she took to the roofs. If the villagers got touchy feely she didn't want to be there. She watched as the group was introduced to some guy called Lucien whom the villagers adored. She was happy that she had not been spotted, something smelt fishy and she wanted to investigate.

She watched the encounter apprehensively, the villagers worshiped him like a hero but there was nothing interesting about him.

"Rho, do you smell something weird?" Haku asked over the radio. Max frowned and took an attentive sniff. Her eyes widened slightly.

"Is that a pheromone? A human positive emotion pheromone? Bugger, I haven't seen or smelt one of those since training, that was embarrassing. Subtly warn the others would you, I'll try to find a sample to take back, you distract the guy,"

"That's a story I have to hear, I suppose I'll have to wait" Haku mourned before passing on the message. Max jumped from roof to roof tracking the stronger scent, the one not coming from the man. She ended up at a house and almost gagged at the smell, all the different things overlaying to form an overwhelming smell.

The shelves were filled with bottles, jars and other things you would expect in an apothecary. Sniffing around to isolate the liquid she was looking for led her to some interesting conclusions. Like about half of them were flavoured water.

Outside the rest of the team tried to look interested at Lucien's stories, they really tried, but with him flirting with Haku under the assumption he was female, and the fact he was about as likable as a the person who farts in an elevator, it was hard.

"I'm done, we can head out when you're ready" Max told Haku after getting the bottle and replacing it with an empty one.

"We're heading in your direction so stay hidden, we'll be leaving not long after"

"Understood" Max replied, she glanced out the window and saw just how close they were. "Bugger," she looked up to the relatively uncluttered ceiling and sprang up, sticking to the ceiling and hoping that no one would give her away. She observed the encounter and was glad that none of them showed signs of being influenced by the pheromone.

She went unnoticed as the man showed the others around, there were a few close calls but eventually the others made their excuses and left. On the flight back Max took a closer look at the bottle she had swiped.

"So what exactly is that thing?" Sheppard asked.

"A pheromone that when ingested makes people exposed to you happy, thus making them like you, hence the villages like for that guy"

"How exactly do you know that?" Teyla asked suspiciously.

"Bad experience with it"

After they gave their report to Weir and dropping the liquid of with the scientists they headed their separate ways. Max headed to her rooms, being in the mans home made her feel weird, the smells almost haunting her, and the pheromones smell was bringing up the memory she didn't like.

She took a nice long refreshing shower, for once relaxing, there were no pressing matters she had to attend to. It felt good to have the weight of her shoulder for the moment. Its why she loved showers.

As she re-entered her main room in her towel to get some clean clothes she immediately felt something was wrong. Her eyes darted around for the source of her unease. She couldn't see anything out of the ordinary but her unease didn't lessen. She looked up just in case and her eyes widened.

"What the hell are you doing in my room you perverted bird!" Max yelled, the phoenix that had been hovering above her swooped down and grabbed Max by the shoulders and flamed away with the silver haired ninja in tow. Max may be a ninja but almost immortal firebirds cheat.

-

Haku watched over the scientists as they worked with the pheromone, he wanted to be sure that none of them misused it even accidentally. Normally this would be Max's job but Haku had seen what she had been going through and decided to take over. That and he wanted to hear the story behind her training experience with it. If it was anything like the other stories he had heard it was bound to be funny.

"Otter, could you please come to the gate room," Haku's radio crackled. Without a word he created a clone and left it watching the scientists. In the control part of the gate room he saw people frantically looking at screen and typing away.

"Rho's disappeared,"

"She does that" Haku shrugged

"She disappeared off the scanners, she can't do that. We haven't detected any wraith darts and security checked her room and we've tried her radio. All her stuff was there, she wasn't," Weir explained. Haku frowned, Max didn't just leave her things around.

"I'll check it out, it was probably Rho experimenting though," Haku said, then he headed to Max's rooms. He couldn't feel her chakra but he knew she had a way of transporting long distance. What really confused her was the fact she had seemingly left her belongings.

He finally got to her rooms and took a look around, the first thing he noticed was the humidity in the room. The door joining her bathroom to her main room was open. Max's stuff was neatly laid out on a counter in the bathroom. Max had probably just had a shower. It would explain some of the humidity but unless Max had a really long hot shower it wouldn't have filled both rooms.

He exited the bathroom and frowned, the humidity was a lot higher in the main room. Maybe Max had tried to dry of using her fire technique. That didn't explain what happened next though.

Haku felt something touch him and his eyes widened when something appeared in front of him.

"I know where Max is"

--

This had got to be one of my best cliffhangers ever

I couldn't just leave Luna and her craziness out of my story

Review please, I'll do my very best to get the next chapter up next weekend or before


	12. Death Gods can play Go Fish

-

~This chapter's dedicated to my sister** MinbooExtreme** for her birthday (12th July), sorry its a bit late~

-

Sorry for the wait... again. Writers block getting baned from the computer and school related stuff.

--

_I take back anything I said about Max talking to nothing making her crazy._

_Recent discovers have shown that she is talking to something we just can't see it normally. Max disappeared and while searching for clues, her… uh, I don't know how to describe it appeared, it said it knew where Max was and that she was safe. It didn't tell me where but it said she was fine if a bit annoyed. Despite this Max is still slightly insane for teaching it how to play Go Fish._

_It sounds like Max had an interesting time where ever she went. She turned up later slightly annoyed and wearing a towel. I never got an explanation for any of it._

Haku's medical journal on Max's mental heath entry 12

"I'm going to kill that bird, I don't care how immortal it is. It's going to die," Max ranted. Said bird was perched on a branch as if mocking her. A kunai whistling past her nose brought out her training as she looked around.

She could hear metal hit metal and headed for the noise. Thinking a bit more rationally Fawkes probably had a reason for taking her here. She would still kill him though.

She got to a clearing where the noise was coming from and gasped, her mind froze at what she saw, not just because of the scene but the implications of it. In front of her was a very one sided battle, a group of what looked like waterfall ninjas were attacking a very battered looking leaf ninja.

Max saw red when she saw which Leaf ninja. Completely disregarding the fact she had no weapons, was still in her towel and couldn't use her fire technique due to the fact the towel was flammable she darted forward, blocking a few more kunai redirecting them back at the throwers.

Everyone froze at her appearance. Max only then remembered her state of dress. A damp towel, water still clumping her hair together. Every single scar and tattoo was visible making a formidable sight. Had this been anywhere else it would have been funny.

"Max?" the Leaf ninja croaked looking hopeful.

"Who else would turn up in just a towel" Max asked sarcastically. She henged into her clothed self, aware that this didn't mean she was clothed, only that it appeared so. She grabbed a kunai that was stuck in a nearby tree and brandished it.

"Who are you?" one of the waterfall ninjas asked. Most of them we still gormless at the fact she had turned up in a towel.

"Me, I'm one of a kind, you may have heard about me in horror stories or even from the bingo book. The names Ookami, Angel of Dusk, some know me as Max." One of the ninjas snorted.

"Impossible, she hasn't been seen for three months after she became a Sannin," he scoffed. Max glared at him, shifting slightly so he could glimpse her ANBU tattoo.

"Then why am I still here? Surly you would have killed me already and finished what you started" Max taunted her grip on the kunai changing slightly. This seemed to click with the opposing ninjas who attacked. Using the single kunai Max defended both herself and the leaf ninja who was slipping in and out of consciousness.

The waterfall ninjas avoided throwing projectiles at her, it would only give her another weapon and their advantage was that she only had one weapon. Out of the nine that originally had been attacking Max had reduced that number to five, she was taking no prisoners.

Four more were quickly killed, the only reason Max was taking so long was she had to keep adjusting her towel. She and the remaining waterfall ninja circled each other. Max's opponent looked worried, he figured he was going to die soon, from her reputation he knew Max wouldn't let him live.

Out of desperation he threw a kunai at the barley conscious leaf ninja. Max intercepted it and swung it around on a finger straight back at him. The blade went straight between his eyes. Max abandoned the other kunai she had been using and ran over to the leaf nin.

"Itachi, stay with me!" Max almost pleaded, she gave him the best medical check over that she could do. She didn't like the results she came up with. "What have you been doing?" she asked rhetorically, she began to clean the wounds she could, with no medical kit she couldn't wrap them and everything else was too grimy. Once she was done she moved away to check the surroundings for any danger, or Fawkes. She had noticed his absence.

From the view she got from a tree she was about halfway between waterfall village and the border of fire country. It wasn't safe last time she had been here and she was going to assume it still wasn't safe. She hoisted Itachi onto her back, careful not to jostle his wounds too much and took off in the direction of home.

-

"So you're a death god, you're invisible to anyone who hasn't touched a death note. You've been following Max around because she had a death note which can kill with a name and a face. You're telling me Max is safe but your not going to tell me where she is" Haku summarized.

"That's right,"

"Can you at least tell me she's safe?"

"She's safe, Fawkes is keeping an eye on her"

"Is Fawkes another death god?"

"No, Fawkes is a phoenix." Haku face palmed.

"Now this all makes sense, no wonder Max is so cynical. A death god knowing a phoenix! That makes perfect sense"

-

Max leant back against a tree enjoying the sun and the cool breeze, she'd been running for a while and anyone who had tried running in a towel knew it was harder than it looked. With the chakra blocks that she had, she couldn't afford to use up too much of her chakra just in case she was attacked and needed to get out quickly. It was why she didn't have any of her standard henges up.

Itachi was next to her in the shade, still unconscious. Max felt weird, torn between emotions. She had no idea what was going to happen and it scared her. For so long she had known what was going to happen, or it hadn't been this important.

On the one hand she might some how get back to Atlantis finish her stint there and return later, on the other hand she might stay here. She wanted to know how he got so badly hurt. To be honest she had never felt so protective, if Itachi had managed to get this hurt, what could the others be like?

She felt Itachi shift against her, she noticed how she had been carding her fingers through his hair. He fidgeted a bit more snuggling up to her side, his arms wrapping around her waist almost possessively.

"Are you going to leave again? If I sleep will you still be here when I wake?" Itachi mumbled hoarsely into her side. Max's breath caught in her throat.

"I don't know," she sighed. "I really don't know"

"Will you at least stay for a bit?"

"I don't know if I can, I wasn't actually given any warning coming here, I doubt I'll get any when getting taken back"

"That explains the towel I suppose, I guess it's going on your list of stupid things you've ever done"

"How do you know about that list? No one knows about that list," Max asked indignantly, she was carefully moving the conversation.

"I found it once, there were some interesting things on there"

"I've led a pretty interesting life, I do blame you for about a third of that list though"

They sat in silence for a bit. Max knew she should move and get to a safer place but she really didn't want to move Itachi, he looked so adorable. She watched him fall asleep again and decided it would be better to move him now, if he was awake then he would probably fidget. It was a pride thing that most ANBU had, even she had it.

-

"Got any fives?" Haku asked Rem. The two of them were sat on Max's bed waiting for her to return.

"Go fish, got any kings?"

"Damn, how do you always know? Hey when do you think Max's coming back?"

"When ever Fawkes thinks that she's done what she was taken for. Hand over the kings"

-

It took the better part of a day to get even near to the fire countries border. Max had stopped for a short nap and woken snuggled up to Itachi.

Itachi had recovered enough to be tree jumping on his own. Max was wary of every step she took, her towel getting snagged on a branch would not improve her day, though from the glances she was getting it would probably improve Itachi's.

"Look where you're going, if you run into a tree I'm going to leave you there"

"Its nice to know that even after you disappear of the face of the planet you still have your wit"

"With some of the situations they get it I need my wit. Crap!" Itachi gave her a questioning look. "Some guy's been using the positive emotion pheromone, there are only two sane people left on the base who wouldn't be affected." Max didn't like the grin spreading across Itachi's face.

"I remember your encounter with it"

"I'm still wondering how Shisui got hold of the stuff, it's a highly controlled substance, I would know, I tried to get the stuff before."

"While he was alive he was reasonable resourceful, he just hid it well"

-

"Otter, there's a problem," Sheppard called over the radio, he sounded slightly tired.

"What's going on now?" Haku asked putting down a pair of threes.

"Lucien's here, he's affected most of the base" Sheppard's reported.

"Otter, this is Weir, stand down. Lucien is a friend, he hasn't affected anyone. Rho made up the whole thing"

"Ah, Weir, you forget several things, I currently take orders from Rho first, everyone else second. Also I'm the one who discovered the drug usage. You've obviously been compromised. Sheppard, you still around?"

"Yes"

"I'll take care of the situation. If Rho returns keep her informed"

-

Max and Itachi were sat on a branch, resting before they started the last leg of the journey. Had they both been in good health they would have been back in the village by now. As it was they were a couple of miles from the Fire county boarder.

Out of the corner of her eye Max noticed a flash of red and gold plumage and knew she didn't have much time left here. She looked over to Itachi who was resting against a tree, his eyes closed. She felt a twinge on her senses, some people were approaching, she recognised the chakra as the rest of her team plus one. She assumed it was her replacement either way she didn't want to be seen by them, it would only make it harder to go back to Atlantis.

She got up and moved over to Itachi who opened his eyes when he felt the branch move.

"I have to go, there are people coming so you should be alright," she explained. Itachi understood that she would probably be leaving then.

Acting on impulse he pulled her close and kissed her. Max melted into it, kissing back.

"Max?!" As if she had just been burnt Max recoiled looking around wildly, her team had gotten to them faster that she had thought. Fawkes swooped in and flamed her away before anything could be done.

-

Haku was wondering Max did this for a living. Trying to find out how many people were affected, avoid being confronted and keeping himself from being affected was hard work. He was headed down a corridor to get to the infirmary when he bumped into someone.

"Jeez, Fawkes! Oh hey Haku, how's it going?" Haku looked at the person he had bumped into and tried to hold in his laughter.

"Why are you wearing a towel?" he sniggered. Out of instinct he looked her over for injuries only to notice something else interesting. "And why do you have a hicky?" Max looked confused at the second question. Being the kind person Haku was he used his ice to make a small mirror for her so she could see. A look of realisation appeared on Max's face. She remembered the small nap she had taken.

"Oh he is so dead!" Max fumed handing the mirror back. Haku got the distinct impression if Max had sleeves she'd be pushing them up in readiness to pummel someone.

"Now if you could kindly direct your anger at the situation at hand. Lucien managed to affect some people enough to get in the city, I don't know how far its spread"

"As of now assume anyone is affected unless you know otherwise"

"Sheppard has a cold, he isn't affected. He's the only one other than us who I know won't get affected. I have no idea about Tawny because of her slightly different DNA"

"Plan of action: Kidnap Beckett, we need his expertise in creating an antidote, I'll meet you in the jumper bay with Sheppard"

"Understood." Both ninjas disappeared from sight, Max heading back to her room to get dressed and Haku to kidnap the medical examiner.

--

Hope you guys liked it, I bet none of you guys saw that coming

Just over a week left of school so new chapters may vary


	13. Attack turned suicidal mission

Yes, I know, another long wait. I'm sorry.

My birthday approaches, clear the road, I'm gonna be driving

--

_Max is still crazy and unpredictable. That's all I have to say at the moment._

Haku's medical journal on Max's mental heath entry 13

Max's plan went of without a hitch much to everyone's surprise. Haku and Sheppard had taken Beckett to the mainland. In that time Beckett had gotten over the pheromones affects and started work on the antidote for it.

As was expected Lucien began to panic and sent Ronan and Teyla after them. Max used this to her advantage and began to search for the pheromone, burning it in plant form and sealing away any liquid for later disposal. She didn't want anyone else taking advantage of it.

Lucien didn't have a clue, not even when everything came together. Max was glad that only two people were aware of her return or the plan would have been more difficult. She had scared the living daylight out of Lucien when she appeared in front of him in full ANBU garb.

As had become common Max and Haku were sat on the tallest tower discussing things now things were back to normal. Naturally the conversation changed onto other matters.

"So, who gave you the hicky?" Haku smirked.

"What hicky?" Max replied innocently, she had covered it up with her normal henges out of habit, she didn't like appearing anything less than professional when she was on duty. She didn't want something else for Weir and Sheppard to give her trouble for.

"I know you were taken somewhere but I don't know where, I just want to know how you got the hicky"

"I got taken back to the elemental countries, Itachi was there-" Max began only to be interrupted.

"Ah, that explains it perfectly," Haku said in a knowing way.

"-there are also nine less waterfall ninjas." Max continued as if Haku hadn't said anything. Haku frowned for a bit before figuring out what was likely to have happened, though he was interested as to how she managed it in a towel.

-

Itachi lay in his hospital bed resting, thinking back to his encounter with Max. If it wasn't for the part before she left he would have thought it had been his imagination. It wasn't uncommon amongst the shinobi to imagine someone they trusted deeply when they were in a desperate situation. The fact that team Kakashi had also seen her proved he wasn't going crazy.

He heard the door open and reached for a kunai by his bed. It was replaced when he saw it was only Kakashi.

"Feeling better?" the visitor asked sitting down by the bed.

"I don't know," Itachi responded, he had a right to be depressed, he had seen his teammate only for her to disappear again. He took a drink from the glass on his nightstand.

"That was a nice hicky you gave her," Kakashi commented offhandedly causing Itachi to choke on his water.

"You saw that?"

"Like I said, it was a fine hicky, probably won't fade for a good few days. I'm proud of you." It was obvious Kakashi was smiling fondly, his face then turned serious. "How is she doing?"

"She's still getting into situations. She's grown quite a bit though"

"In which way." Kakashi asked with a lewd grin. Itachi groaned, he should have seen that one coming. They were interrupted form the silence that followed by the appearance of a folded piece of paper. Kakashi picked it up before Itachi could and opened it. Then he started to laugh.

"What does it say?" Itachi asked, making a grab for it. He still hadn't recovered his full speed so failed. Kakashi held it out of reach and promptly burnt it.

"Max says thanks, I could almost feel her sarcasm in the paper though. You might want to watch your back though"

-

"Rho, Otter, report to the gate room immediately" Weir called over the radio. Both shinobi looked at each other, on the edge of Max's hearing she could hear the whine of a wraith dart.

"On our way" Haku replied as Max dived over the edge of the tower, he followed suit. It was the quickest way and it sounded urgent. Both vaulted through the window to the briefing room and through to the gate room.

"Sup?"

"We have inbound darts and a hive ship in orbit"

"You could have said over the radio…" Max suggested, she was having a weird feeling.

"We needed to get you inside, then the culling beams can't get you" Weir explained, both Haku and Max looked at her sceptically.

"You've never shown that much interest in our wellbeing before"

"Now isn't the time, assuming we survive this encounter you can ask later"

"Ye of so little faith" Max tutted. "I'm going to need a jumper and someone to fly it once were in position"

"What do you plan on doing?"

"Jeez Weir, now isn't the time, if we survive then I'll tell you. Hey Otter, up for some good old sabotage?" the grin on Haku's face matched Max's.

"Sheppard, they'll probably need your flying skills, go with them"

"It doesn't matter, I'll be flying there, I just need someone to fly it back, Ronon, you coming?" Max asked as they headed to the jumper bay. The Satedan was eager to help. Where ever Max was excitement was sure to follow.

"You haven't had training though, we haven't even tested you for the gene!" Sheppard said, continuing Weirs argument.

"Whose fault is that?" Max asked. Sheppard was silent. They picked out a jumper and they were off. Max was fairly competent at basic manoeuvres but when it came to getting near to the hive ship they had to avoid the gunfire. Max weaved between the weapons fire, acting as if the jumper was merely an extension of herself.

"Where the hell did you learn to fly?" Sheppard yelled. The other two passengers just watching silently.

"Nowhere"

"But you said you could fly," Sheppard exclaimed looking very alarmed.

"No I didn't, I just said I _would_ fly" Max protested, she violently dodged fire knocking Sheppard away from the console.

"Move over. I'll fly"

"Hell no, and don't even think about backseat driving"

Max manoeuvred the jumper so it was alongside the hive ship and quickly found an entrance. "Ok, Sheppard, Ronon, you have two options. One, fly this thing around to distract the darts and pick us up later. Or two, come with us and help sabotage the ship" Max offered as she set the craft down, she had long ago put the cloak on, making the ship invisible.

"I'll come with you," Ronon immediately offered, Sheppard grudgingly agreed, 'to keep them out of trouble'.

"What exactly do you plan on sabotaging?" Sheppard asked. Max stopped in her tracks.

"That's a very good point." Max marvelled, Sheppard groaned in responses. "I kid, I kid, jeez" Max reassured him. "Naturally we go for the weapons systems and shields"

"Any idea where they are?" Sheppard asked. Max thought for a few seconds.

"Ok you have me there"

-

Deidara was sitting on a branch watching people walk down the path nearby. Akatsuki were lying low for a while, Max's disappearance had unnerved them so currently Deidara had nothing to do. He knew his brother was on a mission and would be going down that path at some point. It would be nice to see the brat.

"Give me a reason why I shouldn't kill you where you sit," growled a voice behind him.

"Your voice actually cracked then?" Deidara chuckled. "Max trusts me, that and I doubt you could kill me," he said, with the last part he pinned his younger brother to a tree.

"What are you doing here?" Itsuki asked.

"I wanted to see how my brother had grown, is that a crime"

"No but blowing up the council is"

"Good point, I forgot about that, well I'll be seeing you, maybe" Deidara said and turned to leave.

"Could you unpin me first?" the younger male asked sheepishly. Deidara made a hand sigh and Itsuki braced himself for an explosion. He was surprised when the kunai holding him to the tree disappeared. Deidara had also gone.

-

As the team got deeper into the hive ship Haku was starting to doubt their navigation. Since Sheppard had been on one of these ships they were letting him direct with help from Ronon. Max was convinced they were lost and wasn't exactly quite about it.

"I thought ninjas were supposed to be silent" Sheppard commented irritably.

"Your point?"

"So why aren't you being quiet?"

"None of your business" Max snapped. She had a bad feeling. "Oh screw this, I'm going to start blasting"

"No wait, I think we should be able to use this panel to sabotage the ship"

"So can I blast it?"

"No! This is delicate work" Sheppard said. He started messing with the panel. It sparked a few times.

"We should have brought someone who does delicate then" Max said dryly.

The ground seemed to shift under their feet sending the two men tumbling, Max and Haku observed their fall with some amusement evident on their faces. Then there was panic at the realisation.

"I think were in hyperspace" Max said in a slightly strained voice. "I think we should just plant some explosives and the second we leave hyperspace we leave then blow this place into many small pieces"

"Why didn't we do that originally?" Ronon asked.

"Too close to the city, debris could have hit the city. Who has explosives?" Haku asked while Max examined the control panel closer.

"I didn't think we would need it so two sticks"

"We're going to need a lot more than that. Max, hand over your booze"

"What?!" Max yelped, she had only just finished rebuilding her stock after the third task. She started to think quickly to save her precious alcohol she remembered something else from the third task. "How big would you say this ship is from the centre?"

"About a mile or two, you aren't planning something crazy are you?"

"How could you think that of me? Get to the jumper, I'll find the centre of the ship. There's a planet nearby, you should be able to head there" Max grinned.

"One of us should go with you"

"No one would be able to get out of there in time," Max said shaking her head.

"Not even you?"

"I have a fighting chance, I have many tricks up my sleeve. Now get moving, I don't want the ship to get to close to the planet when it blows, I'll meet you on the planet"

"You better, I don't want to explain to the people back home that you did something stupid" Haku warned. The group split up, Max heading for what she hoped was the centre of the ship, the others heading for the jumper.

Once Max was sure the others had gotten away, and it being confirmed by Rem who had returned from the latest note delivery, then Max began to put her plan in action.

During the third task when Max had been captured, she had contemplated adding a hangover cure to her collection of false back teeth. What she remembered was the fact she had some chakra enhanced high explosive in one of them. Unfortunately it had a three second delay. Max wasn't sure how quickly she could apperate out of there and she didn't have the tools she needed to extend the delay.

She removed the tooth and placed it in a small alcove. She created a chakra scalpel on her hand and poised it ready to break the tooth open.

"Meet you on the planet Rem. If not, tell Haku it went wrong, no matter what happens give this to Tsunade," Max asked holding out a piece of paper, Rem nodded and disappeared through a wall.

Max brought her hand down on the tooth and focused on apparating the second she had broken the outer casing.

Seconds later, the ship exploded.

-

From the jumper, the three of them could see the ship light up and bits break off. Then they felt the shockwave. There was silence as they entered the planets atmosphere, none of then could tell whether Max had succeeded in getting out in time.

They set down on the edge of a forest, they had seen a city up north but didn't want to scare the natives.

"We have no idea where to start looking for her, so we might as well look around, I can only sense her if she's within a 50 mile radius and I can't feel her. Though it does feel like my sense is being blocked," Haku said with a frown. He was used to feeling Max's vast chakra.

"It could be anything. We should head to the city, gather some information," Sheppard said taking command of the situation. Ronon nodded silently, he felt uneasy, as if they were being observed. Making sure the jumper was cloaked and shut, they began the hike north.

--

Another crossover on the horizon

Reviews are awesome

I can't promise when I'm next going to update


	14. I call it 'Drama'

Long time no see. Got my driving provisional, problem with the insurance though so no driving for me yet.

Did I offend you guys in my last chapter? I got no reviews for it.

Do you not like my story anymore? Is it boring? Should I stop being so overdramatic?

~Cyber cookie for anyone who can tell me the name of the series I crossed over with this time.~

--

_There's been an incident. Max blew up a ship she had to detonate it in person, we don't know if she made it out in time. We've been looking for her on the nearby planet, so far no luck but we refuse to give up hope._

Haku's journal on Max's mental heath entry 14.

Max woke to someone prodding her with what felt like a stick.

"Looks like she waking up," said a male voice. Max winced, it sounded like drums were hammering inside her head. She tried to focus enough to examine her situation. Using FA she found she was being watched by two men, most likely soldiers from the weapons they carried. Further away she could see a small camp and watching from a tree was another man. She panicked slightly when she felt most of her weapons missing and her hands were tied.

"What was I drinking last night?" she mumbled, her memory was slightly fuzzy after the explosion.

"She doesn't look old enough to be drinking," one of the soldiers whispered.

"Look at her hair colour though, that can't be natural"

"Why is the sky falling?" She asked blinking a bit. She was testing them with these words, just to see their reaction and the reaction of the man in the trees. She wanted to get at least a basic situational analysis before doing anything hasty. She propped herself up on her elbows and subtly started to work on freeing her hands.

"I think she hit her head," the other guard mused quietly. Max focused on him and frowned.

"Who are you?"

"I think we should be asking you that question," the man from the trees asked approaching them.

"Are there more of you hiding in the trees?" Max asked timidly. She observed the man as he approached, something felt weird about him. The way he held himself, the way he walked and spoke, everything. She could see hints of weapons all ready to grab at a moments notice just like her own. Well if she still had them any way.

He was an assassin. Highly trained and ready for anything. Max couldn't help but wonder how he would compare to her own skills.

"I would be tempted to fall for that act if it wasn't for the shear amount of weapons I found on you" the assassin commented. Max smiled sheepishly, she had been busted.

"What can I say, they're shiny" she shrugged, she doubted they'd buy that but she wanted them to think she was still fuzzy from what ever.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you here and now?" the assassin asked. He drew out a dagger ready.

"Oh feel free to try, just do me a favour and give me a fighting chance," Max requested, she had freed her hands a while back, but she was intrigued by the three.

"You want to fight me?" The assassin laughed.

"I was right, she hit her head," one of the soldiers said.

"You really don't know who I am, do you?" The assassin asked suddenly more serious.

"Not a clue, though as an assassin it's probably a good thing if people don't know who you are"

"Does the name Valek mean anything to you?"

"No, should it?" Max was raking her memories to see if it was from a book she had read.

"Do you live under a rock?" one of the guards asked incredulously. Max gave him a dry look. "He's the best assassin in the whole of Ixia and probably Sitia as well"

"I'm not from either so I can't really tell, can we get to the matter at hand though, and I thought _I_ got distracted easily"

"So you want to fight for your freedom?"

"Uh. Does freedom mean you let me walk out of here or you'll untie my hands, if it's the latter I won't bother," Max said, sheepishly rubbing her wrists in turn to ease the red skin.

-

"I'm going to assume you have no intention of telling _her_ about your meeting with Max," Kakashi asked Itachi as they walked to meet the team. It took Itachi a few seconds to realise who Kakashi was referring to.

"Never"

"I'm also going to assume you didn't tell Max about _her_"

"I value my life"

"She's going to maim you when she finds out"

"Only maim?"

"Max likes you too much to kill you, _she_ would have to watch her back though," Kakashi explained. Itachi sighed, why were things so complicated? They turned a corner bringing the meeting point into view. There was an extra person waiting.

"Itachi-koi!" Itachi winced slightly, he could have sworn he had told _her_ not to bother the team. He could tell the actual team weren't too impressed.

"Brother, I know you're supposed to be doing some light training with us for a while but did you have to invite you _girlfriend_?" Sasuke seethed, even the normally hyperactive Naruto didn't look too impressed. Sai looked indifferent but his eyes showed a tiny bit of amusement mixed with annoyance on the woman.

To be fair, it wasn't Itachi's fault. The council had stuck their noses in and decided that they needed Uchiha babies to mould into loyal fighters. Itachi hadn't had much of a choice. If he hadn't picked someone actually in the village at the time, they would have picked for him. He was still questioning his sanity when he had picked.

Next year it would be Sasuke's turn to get approached. At least he had Laura.

-

"I can't believe you actually beat him," the guard Max now knew as Ari murmured. Valek was unconscious on the floor between the three of them. Max had been surprised that Valek had actually put up a pretty decent fight. She had gathered that magic was a taboo in this country but where they were going it was allowed. She kept her chakra usage low key just in case it was mistaken for magic and was suppressing it as much as she could so no magic user would point it out.

"I can't believe she's still here, I would have scarpered," the other guard, Janco, murmured back.

"Look, I'm bored and have nothing to do, why not stick around for a bit? Besides, I want to make sure I didn't do any lasting harm"

"How did you come across those skills? And why? You don't seem like any assassin would be" Ari asked.

"Someone I once knew said 'you can only become truly strong when you have someone you would give your life to protect'. I had someone to protect so I did all I could to do that"

"Um, your wrists are glowing," Janco said pointing. Max looked down and saw the writing from the priestess glowing.

"I never noticed the writing there before, where did you get it" Ari asked, Max could see the suspicion in his eyes.

"Some priestess, who I may have annoyed slightly, mucked up my senses and stuff for a while," Max said, glossing over the fact more than her senses had been mucked up.

"What did you do to her?" Janco asked eagerly.

"Kind of like a family feud, she hates my family, I knew nothing of hers. She accused me of stuff, I insulted her. She gave me the writing on my wrists, I punched her a good hundred meters off a balcony. I think I got the better end of the deal," Max said, smiling at the memory. They noticed Valek stirring and Max backed away a bit, from experience if someone had been knocked out in a fight they tended to be paranoid and on a hair-trigger. In layman's terms she didn't want to be attacked.

Valek jumped into a defensive position the second he saw Max as she had expected.

"What's she still doing here?" he asked Ari and Janco. Max could see that he had instinctively gone for his weapons much as she would have in this situation.

"Don't worry, I'm only here because I'm bored, I'm not going to kill you" Max said in a way she hoped sounded reassuring. "I would have done that ages ago if I'd wanted to," she shrugged.

The four of them sat in silence for a bit, not quite sure what to do now. In her boredom Max started to sharpen her kunais.

"Where did you get a weapon like that?" Valek asked, eyeing the unusual weapons. In all of his travels due to his occupation, he had never seen that shape blade.

"Where I come from they're pretty commonplace, I could use it before I learnt to walk" Max said offhandedly. It was a lie but it served her purpose to show she could use it. She wasn't completely sure why she felt the need to inform him, maybe it was her pride showing through. She frowned a bit, confused by her own behaviour.

"We need to get moving, if you're coming with us you need to behave and do as I say" Valek ordered. Max shrugged in a sort of agreement, she would follow his orders if it suited her.

-

The trio from Atlantis finally reached the city, it was teaming with people of what seemed like every social class. They were greeted at the gate much to their surprise.

"My name is Iys Jewelrose, the fourth magician, what is your business here?" the woman's words were harsh and guarded, it was clear she was addressing Haku. The woman next to her looked at them curiously, her green eyes were a bit unnerving. Haku could sense something from them like Chakra but not quite.

"I am Haku, these are my companions Ronon and Sheppard. We're searching for someone; we got separated on the road."

"Why don't you use your magic to find her?"

"Magic" Haku asked, echoed by both his companions.

"Your magic is controlled yet you have no knowledge of it?" Iys asked frowning in confusion, an expression mirrored by the travelers. "Your two friends have no magic yet you have a quite a large amount"

"Look, we're tired, could we discuss this when we've rested" Sheppard intervened. Iys nodded in agreement.

"You'll be staying at the Keep with the other magic students. You understand it's for both your safety and the citizens. We'll continue this in the morning, Yelena here will show you around"

"Is that wise?" Haku asked, the three of them could probably overpower both women if they needed to.

"I have faith in her abilities, you shouldn't underestimate her"

-

"So Rho, what do you plan to do when we get to the Citadel?" Janco asked, to begin with be conversation had been a bit dry so this was a nice change. Ambassador Signe, the woman they were guarding, had been a bit reluctant to let Max stay but had relented at the three men's request.

"Hang around for a bit, decide where to go next, see if I can find any of my friends"

"Are they trained like you?"

"Not all of them, they can fight in their own ways. Hey, do you want to do some sparing next time we stop? I could probably show you some new moves if you want, both of you," she amended. Ari sped up to join them sheepishly.

"It feels weird being told that by such a young girl," Janco admitted as he nodded in agreement. Max took out a kunai and started a lesson on holding it without cutting himself. She planed to give him and his partner a few as a thank you for keeping her company, it wasn't like she was running low.

She could tell Valek was watching as well, he had disguised himself as an adviser to the ambassador. Janco had said that he was forbidden from entering Sitia. Max had only laughed, there were many places she was technically forbidden from, that was if you count the places she had a bounty on her head.

-

Tsunade sighed as she looked at the piece of paper in front of her, she was trying to find a loophole. The only loophole she knew of was Kami knows where. Itachi would need to find Max to get out of this order but no one had any idea. She looked over the legal jargon, trying to make sense of some of it, the words seemed to blur in front of her eyes.

She set down the paper and rubbed her eyes. Looking back down on the paper she noticed a note on top written for the world to see in Max's scrawl.

_In case of emergencies (and I mean emergencies)_

Underneath were some symbols Tsunade recognised as Stargate symbols, it was an address, She put the paper in a drawer so she wouldn't loose it, she would send someone first thing in the morning. First she needed sleep.

The note would stay in that drawer forgotten until needed, Max had made sure of it. The only other way it would be remembered was if she was dead.

-

"We're almost there," Ari announced as they caught their first glimpses of the city. Max extended her senses forward and almost recoiled from what she could feel, so much energy, such a big place. If Haku was there she wouldn't be able to pick him out, her sense wasn't as refined as his.

"Are you ok, you look a bit shocked?" Janco asked. Max waved it off.

"It just looks a bit big," Max lied. Had Louise or Laura been there they would have added 'that's what she said', it made her a little homesick thinking of them.

"You'll be fine"

"I always am I suppose. I'm going to leave you now. If I get searched and if they find all these weapons on me I don't want to ruin your diplomatic mission" Max explained, she figured Valek would be fine, he was used to everything here. "I might see you around," she said almost cryptically, she tossed them each a pair of kunai and another at the disguised Valek. Then she took off at a run, being careful not to go too fast until she knew she was out of sight.

--

Find out about this mysterious _her_, what happens at the citadel and other stuff in the next chapter

Review please


	15. Curiosity was framed, honest

Ok I got a bit carried away here so no Konoha scene, you'll have to wait a bit longer to find out about _her._

--

_Well Max is alive, no worse than normal, still making waves where ever she goes. On the planet we landed on, she uncovered a plot by 'accident'. At least she's ok._

The Citadel was a lot like Konoha in many respects. The main similarity was it was busy, the hub of the country.

Max remained unnoticed as she jumped from building to building. She could probably have remained unnoticed if she had stayed at street level but the hustle and bustle wasn't her scene. The heat was bad enough up on the roofs but the combined body heat? She would leave it. Maybe if she'd stuck to the street level she would have bumped into the rest of her Atlantis team who were being shown around.

-

Haku hated being so crowded, If the group was attacked it would be hard to defend initially. Assuming the people would move to give them space. Something caught his senses, he couldn't be sure what it was though. It could be Max but it felt too weak, or overpowered by the ambient magic. Their escort seemed pretty annoyed and Haku could feel something wrong with her, something binding or at least watching. He could sense people following them and both Sheppard and Ronon had also noticed.

"We need to return to the Keep now, I have another place I need to be soon," Yelena, their guide/escort, informed them. She looked like she would prefer to stay rather than go. She reminded Haku of Max when she was called to the council in Konoha.

"You can go, I'm sure our watchers will keep an eye on us" Haku said, he still had places not mapped out in his head. He still was irritated that the other two had decided because he was the 'magician' of the group he should be the leader for the moment.

Yelena tilted her head to think about it then nodded. "Don't get into trouble," it was more a plea than an order. She left them to wander, most of the guards still trailing them. At least one had followed Yelena.

-

Max sat on the ceiling of a grand hall, she had seen people decorating it and become curious, she really hoped the saying 'curiosity killed the cat' wouldn't apply here. There had already been a few close calls but she managed to stay undetected for the moment.

She watched people wearing fine robes enter, four wearing animal masks more ornate than her own. She could have sworn each of the masked people had glanced at her at least once apiece. She had also felt at least a couple of taps on her mental shield.

Something caught her eye, a woman standing next to one of the masked people next to the one with the hawk mask to be specific. She looked irritated, Max let her senses feel out and recoiled, shocked. The woman had a band of something around her neck. It felt all too similar to the bands around Max's own wrists. Max tugged at it, seeing if she could subtly loosen it but stopped when she saw the obvious alarm on the woman's face.

Max almost fell of the ceiling when something knocked loudly on her mental defense. She concentrated on hiding her presence but the knocking persisted. Each getting louder, stronger and more annoying. She did however notice the stuff was gone from the woman's throat.

It paused when the doors opened much to her relief, Max smirked when she recognised the group enter. The group she had been travelling with, Janco and Ari were obvious, Valek had a good disguise. She observed the encounter, trying to prevent herself from yawning, diplomacy things were boring when everyone was trying to impress each other with fancy words.

She almost dozed off before they finally stopped with the major formalities and food was served to the guests. With the noise and movement it would be less likely she would get noticed leaving. She crept along the ceiling and slipped out a door.

"Ahem," a feminine voice cleared her throat, obviously directed at Max. She had been busted. "What exactly were you doing?" Max turned, the woman wore a hawk mask and ceremonial robes, Max could tell they would hinder her in hand to hand combat if the need arose.

"Watching, what do you think I was doing?" Max replied snarkily. She idly noticed the door was open, there was a chance people inside the hall would hear her.

"Spying on a private event, especially dressed like that" the woman accused sternly. Max looked at what she was wearing, she could se why she looked like she was a spy, she was in her ANBU gear including amour with her black and white Atlantis jacket instead of a cloak.

"If it were private I wouldn't have been able to get, your security sucks. Anyone would think you were asking for someone to infiltrate the place to…I don't know, assassinate someone," Max suggested a half smirk playing on her face.

"Who are you?"

"It's rude to ask someone's name without introducing yourself," Max replied coyly.

"It's also rude to spy"

"Big deal, you wanted to know something, I just gave my terms"

"I am Iys Jewelrose, the fourth magician," the woman introduced with a small flourish and a lot of pride.

"Only the fourth? I have to admit I'm disappointed, I was hoping for maybe the first if there is one" Max asked, deflating the woman's bubble. She had also avoided the question.

"You were messing with _my_ student. I have every right to question you."

Max could hear the woman starting to loose patience. She wanted to see how far she would go, to see her power, then react accordingly.

"The black haired woman? You were the cause of that thing around her neck? In that case I'm not telling you squat"

"Then I will take it from your mind, my efforts won't be as gentle as before."

So it had been this woman tapping on her defense. Maybe Max could let her in, show her the sights. Bad memories have their uses. That should dissuade others from trying to peek, it would need to be more public though for word to spread.

"Jeez what is it with people and invading thoughts! Don't you have some sort of rule or code against it?" Max didn't want to make it too obvious.

"We do but there are exceptions to every rule"

"Have fun then, but I want some witnesses"

"What would you gain from that?"

"When you look through my mind you'll find out, or are you backing out," Max challenged, Jewelrose grabbed Max's wrist and dragged her into the hall.

"This girl was caught spying here, She has agree to have her mind read on the condition there are witnesses, unless she's backing out," Jewelrose announced loudly. People started to murmur amongst themselves, especially the delegates from Ixia.

"Why would I back down?" Max asked boldly. "I have nothing to hide"

"You won't mind if someone accompanies me into your mind then?"

"The more the merrier," Max shrugged. More people to mentally scar.

"Roze? Would you care to accompany me to see this girl's intentions here?"

"I, Roze Featherstone, the First Magician will accompany you," another masked person spoke up.

"So there is a first" Max mused to herself. She got no warning when her mind shield was battered by both women simultaneously, her shield held up rather well considering the power being forced against it. She allowed a gap to form letting the two minds in.

'Let's see how deep this rabbit hole goes' Max thought to them before dragging their minds to the area of her mind she kept locked up. 'Did you think I would let you wander on your own? Let you find out my darkest secrets? Well these are dark, and secret. Go ahead' Max offered. The two visiting minds looked attentively at them.

The shrieks filled the air of the hall. People stepped back in shock, these two women were two of the strongest in Sitia. Yet this…girl was making them scream. It was a full minute until Max released them and sealed her mind shield so they didn't try to invade.

"Seen enough?" she asked rubbing the back of her neck. "I know I have. A door opened may be stepped though in either directions. You two have interesting minds, especially you _First Magician,_ interesting thoughts in your mind."

Roze's eyes narrowed at her, hidden mostly by the mask but Max could see as they maintained their eye contact. Max could tell she was wondering whether she really knew her secret.

"This girl has an overactive imagination, that's all," Roze declared to the occupants of hall. "A very dark imagination, pessimistic and she easily jumps to conclusions. She just wants attention."

"Surely you know the difference between real and fake memories. Do you want to see some proof?" Max asked, more to Iys who didn't look to sure what to think. The fourth magician nodded. Max took off her jacket and turned as she peeled off her amour to show her back.

Gasps filled the room.

Since she had changed her ANBU top to one with no proper back due to the heat of Sitia, only the thin straps to keep it in place obscured her back. Most of her scars were still visible. Three healed gashes were the most prominent almost white against her lightly tanned back. The starburst was but a thin outline and plenty of smaller scars littering her back.

Her arms were also visible, smaller scars, mostly on her forearms were speckled with barely visible scratches with the occasional thicker scar. The bandage that covered her ANBU tattoo didn't help assumptions. Max had avoided facial scars so far but she managed to move her gaze around the room, many people gasping at her mismatched eyes.

"Now do you believe me?" Max asked to the silent hall. "Are you willing to listen to me about what I have to say?"

"As I said attention seeking," Roze announced, she avoiding looking at Max. Max could feel magic trying to invade her body and mind. She reacted, flaring her chakra out like a beacon as much as her wrist bindings would allow. The flare repelled Roze's subtle attack and slammed her against the wall.

"Do you mind, I'm trying to tell them about your plot to take over the country?!" Max grumbled loudly.

"You're a magician?" Janco asked clearly confused by the whole thing from the second Max had turned up.

"No, I'm a ninja, trained assassin if you prefer, I have dabbled in magic but of a different kind to the stuff here"

"Why were you here?" asked Iys. Max rolled her eyes, these people were stupidly easy to distract.

"Curiosity. I think were getting a bit off topic here though, I suggest that at least two people check Roze's mind or soul and see her intentions, you might find some interesting things there" Max recommended, Roze looked like she was about to protest. Max swiftly drew her wand from a hidden holster on her belt and pointed it at the First Magician. "Silencio," she intoned calmly, any sound that had been about to come out of Roze's mouth was stopped. "Petrificus Totalus" Roze's limbs snapped together immobilising her.

Doors burst open naturally drawing most people's attention. "Rho!" Max couldn't prevent a smile as Haku entered the room followed but Sheppard and Ronon. They broke into identical smiles though Haku's looked a bit dangerous, as in 'you are going to get a medical check over whether you like it or not'.

"And that's my cue to leave, heed my words though, you'll save a lot of trouble. Adios amigos" Max bade the occupants of the hall farewell, slipped her jacket back on and ran for the nearest door, blurring out of sight. Haku followed in hot pursuit.

The rest of the people in the hall turned to face the two men who Haku had abandoned to chase Max.

"Don't mind us, we're perfectly sane," Sheppard said with an easy smile, the kind that got most people to trust him.

"Does that mean that girl wasn't?" Janco asked what everyone was thinking.

"She's not completely sane but she's probably right, she normally is. She's saved my life a few times"

"We'll take her recommendation into consideration, it'll need to be discussed with the council, in the mean time Roze will be detained" One of the other masked people declared. More whispering circulated the room.

"I think we should go find the other two," Ronon muttered.

"Agreed"

--

Heh, Max never did tell them her name, Haku yelled it but Max never said it.

The mystery crossover: Magic Study, the second book in the study trilogy, I changed a couple of things from it but nothing major that I can't explain if I need to.

Drop a review please


	16. No one expected the unexpected

Results = bad (CCE + D for chem at A2)

Updates, as has become usual, will be unpredictable even to me. This part only really has four planned chapters after this.

THEN... more amazing happenings but back in the hidden continents for all of them (most of the time)

--

Using the jumper made searching for a Stargate much easier. Or it would have had there actually been one on the planet. Sheppard had refused to let Max fly. It was a good thing in a way, never let trouble magnets fly spaceships. As it was, they were heading to another planet which according to the puddle jumper did have a Stargate.

"Anyone else having a feeling of impending doom?" Max asked, the others gave her sour looks.

"Obviously, you're here, doom's got to be around"

"I would say I resent that fact but it's true" Max admitted. She leant as far back as she could in the co-pilots chair, arching her back and hearing a few vertebrae pop.

"What did you do back there anyway?" Ronon asked, the kind of fear the people had looked at Max with was the kind he could use. That and they had been chased back to the puddle jumper...

"Mentally scar a few people"

"I really don't want to know how, all I'm going to say is we are never going back there again," Haku interrupted. He had already read the book, he didn't want to hear it.

"Even I don't want to know what I showed them," Max said sheepishly.

"You have issues, I think you need to spend some time with Heightmeyer," Sheppard pondered not really looking at the brief look of horror that passed across Max's face, she hated psychologists.

"Or I could not. I may have issues but that's never hindered me"

Most of the flight remained silent. It took a few hours in which Max slept, it was the reason it was so quiet. She had her mask skewed over her face to block out the changing light. It was only when they got through the gate she woke up. The sensation of going through the wormhole was irritating while conscious but while asleep?

"Nice to see you were successful in your mission," Weir congratulated when they returned to the control room. "We had thought you had been captured, I also have important news for you"

Max had sensed an extra person in the room before she had entered so out of instinct her mask was over her face. She looked around properly and gasped.

"You're dead!" she exclaimed, she barely resisted the temptation to kill him where he stood. She wanted an explanation first though, then she would kill him.

"No, I'm not." Max could hear a slight Japanese accent. People were staring at the pair, some thinking Max had finally lost her marbles.

"I saw you die, Light Yagami," Max said with conviction, she had felt his pulse stop. She noticed the death god floating behind him and frowned, that wasn't Ryuk. Rem was probably on her way back from the last note. She had never seen this death god before.

"There wasn't a 'Light Yagami' mentioned in your file Rho," Weir said, she was sceptical of Light, Max was right last time, but this was impossible.

"There are many things that never made it to my file, have you heard of the Kira case?" Max asked, she noticed the brief look of panic on Lights face. She narrowed her eyes at him but no one else had noticed.

"I've heard of it yes. It was solved but the killer was never named, the identities of the investigation team are classified for their safety as was the method of killing"

"All for a good reason. I was on that team, that's why I've never told you my real name. Light was also on that team and died, I felt his pulse stop with my own hand," Max explained, telling a small white lie and omitting bits. Light relaxed a little, Max figured that he thought she didn't actually know it was him. It only dug another nail into his coffin in Max's eyes.

-

"Itachi-koi, lets go get some sushi!" Itachi resisted the temptation to run as far as he could from the owner of the high pitch squeak who had suggested going to get sushi. The owner of said voice, Shiba Tsuki, ignored the looks she got from team seven as she passed them to reach Itachi who was sparing with Sasuke.

When Max had first become a Genin, Shiba was originally meant to be on her team along with Shisui, but Max had switched for many good reasons. Itachi couldn't fault her reasoning. Shiba was clingy, annoying and loud but he'd had barely any choice, anyone else he could have picked, even just to fake with, had been suspiciously given missions.

"I would love to but I can't let down my brother," Itachi apologised without breaking his rhythm.

"When will you be done? We can go then." Itachi sighed, getting out of this would be harder than he had hoped. He didn't want to go get sushi, it reminded him of Max and the times she taunted Kisame. He didn't notice the fact he had become distracted enough for Sasuke to get a few kicks in.

"Can you leave please? Itachi doesn't need to be distracted," Sasuke spat out, glaring at the woman. Said woman sneered at him but flounced away anyway.

"Flounce bitch, flounce," Naruto muttered. He hadn't forgiven her disapproving looks at his existence.

-

"So, how did I die?" The team had figured Light was from a different reality and so were working to find out why. Max was still sceptical because of the death god following him.

"Hit by a car, drunk driver," Max said simply, she wasn't going to volunteer much information. Like the fact he had already been convicted of being Kira and arrested a few times, she wanted to see what he would do.

"Why do you wear that mask?"

"As I said, I was on the Kira case. Why are you asking so many questions?"

"Wait, I thought you said that you wore that because of your job" Weir sighed loudly.

"I wear this mask for many reasons. My identity is secret for my protection and those I work with. Like a superhero keeps their identity a secret"

"So you're a superhero?" Light asked mockingly.

"I wouldn't say _hero _per say, more mercenary I suppose, the technical term is ninja though so superninja is a more accurate description." Another long winded description, again mocking Light.

"Why are you so hostile?" Light asked what everyone was thinking.

"I have my reasons. Again, why are you asking so many questions?"

"I'm curious"

"This will probably be one of those cases that curiosity killed the cat, Light"

"Rho, seeing as Alex isn't on your team any more Light will be part of team thirteen. _Do not exclude him,_" Weir ordered. Max pulled a face behind her mask. It was probably Weir's way of keeping an eye on Light and stopping Max from going off at the drop of a hat.

"Then we should do some team training to adjust to his presence in the team" Max suggested. Weir nodded in agreement, slightly suspicious of Max's change in behaviour. A few ANBU signs had Haku going to get Tawny to meet them in one of the secluded rooms. Max motioned for Light to follow her but the second they were out of sight of anyone she stopped.

"I know who you are, _Kira_"

"I don't know what you mean" Light said innocently.

"I may have believed you if it weren't for the fact _I can see the death god behind you_" Max hissed to both Light and his death gods surprise.

"How? I thought you could only see them if you touched there death note"

"My business, not yours"

"You must have a death god but I doubt your going to show me"

"Sharp as ever," Max said dryly.

"Will you at least tell me its name?"

"No." They stood in a contemplative silence both thinking.

"What I'm wondering is why you didn't rat me out to Doctor Weir" Light said, breaking the silence. "I mean if I killed you no one would know about it"

"How do you plan on killing me, no one knows my name and I wear a mask" Max said ignoring his first enquiry, she had plans, she wanted to steal his death note.

"There are more ways to kill than with a note" Light brushed against his jacket to show a gun shaped bulge by his side.

"You plan to shoot me?" Max asked, she couldn't help but start laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"Ever heard the phrase 'faster than a speeding bullet'?" She choked out between giggles. While she had been shot, twice, both times had been in situations she couldn't avoid.

"So you're superman now"

"No... hello, ninja..."

"Ah, just the ninja I was looking for," a Scottish voice piped up from down the corridor barely inside the hearing range of most people. A Scottish voice Max had been planning to avoid.

"I'll continue this later, now I've got to run," Max said hurriedly and disappeared, looking back it probably would have been better to take Light with her but she had been more worried about being detained in the infirmary again.

-

Laura sat in the gloom of the balcony trying to figure out the missing link in her latest case. The sun had just sunk below the horizon leaving an orange glow. She sighed exasperatedly as she a few drops of water fall onto herself and her papers.

She reentered the house, the darkness was worse in there, a few hours earlier there had been a power cut and it wasn't likely to get fixed until the morning. She had a torch, she didn't want to use it unless she had too, she would only end up seeing shadows that would seem to move and scare her.

At least the house was empty, Louise was working overnight and the interrogation building had its own power source so she wouldn't be affected by the power cut. No one else currently lived in the house.

As she was walking to her room, she didn't need eyes to guide her down the well walked path, she felt something move, a subtle shift in the air. She reached for her torch, not just for light but its bulky weight could be used as a weapon if the need arose.

"Would you really hit me with that thing, it looks heavy?" a familiar voice asked.

"Sasuke?" A glowing ball of light filed the room from said guys wand. Laura berated herself, she should have kept hers with her, it was just so long since she had used it.

"Who else would check to make sure you're ok on your own?" A smirk tugged at his lips.

"The same person who decided to scare me." The smirk only grew in response. "How did you know I was on my own?"

"I had to deliver Louise a prisoner. I figured that meant she would be working a while, and with Max being who knows where, that meant I had you all to myself"

-

Max was grumbling quietly in the infirmary, Haku had stolen the scroll she kept her booze in and threatened to set fire to it if she didn't rest. Apparently sleep was required after missions. Beckett was looking over blood test results and keeping an eye on her.

"Doctor Beckett to the Gate room," Weir ordered urgently over the radio. The doctor grabbed his bag and started out the door. Before he got too far Max had caught up and shushined him to the gate room as smoothly as she could. She looked up to Weir for a report.

"Light's gone, Peter Grodin's dead, heart attack"

"Do you think they're connected," Beckett asked as he checked over the body.

"They are connected," Max spoke up, catching their attention. "Light was suspected of being Kira in this universe, we never got proof and he died before we could look much further. The weapon Kira used can control the persons actions up until death and we think someone else got hold of it after this dimensions Light died. From this I can only assume this Light is a Kira"

"Where's this weapon now? Could you use it to kill him?"

"Destroyed no one should have that kind of power," Max said, she would have to remember the white lies she was telling to keep herself from tripping over them later. So much for her plans to steal his death note. Damn doctors.

"The last address has been wiped, no one else was here, Grodin reportedly told the others to get some rest" McKay reported from the computers.

"So basically there's some one on the loose who can kill people at will"

"Not quite at will"

"Rho, we need to know what weapon he has," Weir said to the girl with as much authority as she could muster.

"No, you don't. It's classified and you'd think I was lying." She wanted to get away so she could write Light's name in her own death note.

"You're supposed to be in the infirmary" Beckett yelled noticing Max from where he was kneeling by the deceased man.

"And that my friend is my cue to leave" Max said and she disappeared before anyone could object. She headed for the most secluded spot she could find in the city, checked for cameras and finding none she locked the door, then sat on the ceiling. Only then did she take out her death note. She specified the death so that Light would burn his death note then die of a heart attack. That way no one else would get their hands on it. That would be a disaster.

As she was writing Rem returned looking suitably puzzled. "Somethings not right in the death god realm, Jelous is somehow alive, he's another death god, he 'died' a while back."

"Different dimension mishap. Light's also back, for how long, I don't know, I've just written his name down." Max was careful not to mention the death note in case there was a bug or something. "In any case at least there aren't two of them running around"

--

Review Please,

Thanks Hunter 152, I think I missed that episode, would be funny though.


	17. Brown stuff, fan, this situation

Long time no see.

Uh, let see now, I've started school again and I really need to buckle down and study if I want to get into University next year. I still will be continuing this though.

~Dedicated to Hunter 152 for the continuous reviews from him~

--

The first thing Max thought when she woke up was 'How drunk did I get?'

The second was 'Oh bugger'.

Looking around through slightly blurred eyes didn't improve on her second thought. The distinct Wraith style room with no visible way of opening the door from her side was not good. There were no other people in the room - a cell she supposed. Her limbs were a bit shaky as she sat up and there was a strange tingly feeling in her left foot.

Looking down at it she could see why, her foot was twisted at a weird angle, her ankle was swollen and she could see bone sticking out. The tingly feeling was her tenant's doing as it tried to heal the break. Max immediately set it straight so when it did heal it wouldn't be wonky, it had already been partially healed and the crack as she realigned it didn't sound healthy.

She quickly checked the rest her body for injuries but only found bruises and small scratches. She was still gong to have to visit the infirmary. At least she had most of her weapons on her, the obvious ones she had were gone.

Max tried to remember what had gotten her into this situation, she remembered being on a mission with Sheppard's team. They made contact with a village and after some talks they were invited to a meal.

Something had tasted funny in the food, she had been reassured it was normal but she had stopped eating anyway. When the others had fallen asleep at the table Max had immediately been on her guard, she unfortunately hadn't been able to get all of the members of the team out before the drug started to affect her. She remembered tripping over the bench they had been sat at and nothing until now. That explained the broken ankle.

She thought back to the important matter at hand. How she was planning to escape. She stood up, wincing slightly as she put a bit of weight on her ankle, a few trial steps showed it was sable but a bit painful. She walked over to the door, it reminded her of a thick spider web and had no obvious way of opening. Across the hallway she could see a control panel. It was probably her best bet. She took out a shuriken and threw it between the holes in the webbed door.

Direct hit, the panel sparked a bit and the door rose up allowing Max out. Unfortunately Max had forgotten one of the first things you should do. Check for guards. There had been one either side of her door, not quite in her range of vision until she walked out. Only shear luck and poor aiming allowed her to dodge the wraith stunner's initial shots. The luck hadn't extended to the second shots as the world went black again.

The second time she woke up she immediately could feel a problem, she couldn't move. A brief flash of FA showed she was wrapped up in a cocoon thing. She sighed in annoyance. Waiting for an unsuspecting wraith to walk past she used the substitution technique to switch places with it. She sighed again as she hobbled down the corridor. Her ankle was still a bit tender.

Turning a corner, she almost bumped into two more wraiths who immediately pointed their weapons at her.

"Uh, take me to your leader?" Max asked half jokingly.

"Follow him," one of them ordered her, taking up position to follow them, weapon still trained on her.

By the seventh left turn Max was considering escape, she hadn't seen any sign of the others and this was boring. She only noticed they had stopped when she bumped into the now stationary wraith she had been following. She was shoved through the door that she hadn't noticed. Inside was a chamber, directly ahead was a throne of some sort, Max was having severe déjà vu from her confrontation with Voldemort. Only she wasn't exhausted this time. Sat on the throne was what Max could only assume was a female wraith. It was hard to tell sometimes. The second her eyes met the wraiths she felt an intrusion into her mind. It wasn't subtle either, it was like a battering ram. Scratch that, it was like 29 battering rams one after another.

Time seemed to blur as the attack on her mind continued.

"Why won't you break!" the Wraith Queens screech pierced through the air. Max looked up, staring her directly in the eyes. "I know you hold the knowledge I desire! Give it to me!" the wraith stood and approached Max, arm outstretched in readiness to feed.

"Invictus," was the only word Max said before throwing off the attack, the words of the poem motivating her to get off her ass. She'd had enough and was about to snap. The wraith queen had made one fatal mistake. She had assumed Max was helpless and not bound her wrists. A flash of movement startled the blue woman.

"Summoning Jutsu: Dual P-90." Those were the last words the wraith queen heard. Max emptied both clips into the woman before decapitating her, just to be on the safe side, then incinerated both the head and body.

"I am the master of my fate"

She reloaded her guns before stepping out of the room and shooting the two wraith guarding the chamber. She was currently functioning on annoyance, she didn't even have a clue why she was annoyed. She just was.

She wandered the corridors to find the rest of the team, she wanted to get off this ship and blow it to pieces. She was walking down a corridor when she heard a muffled noise form the wall. Looking at it she saw the rest of the team in cocoons similar to how she had found herself the second time.

"Suck to be you guys" she smirked and began pulling the stuff of them.

"How did you get free?" McKay demanded the second his mouth was uncovered.

"Magic"

"Don't be stupid, magic doesn't exist"

"Oh how wrong you are"

-

Itachi was sat in a tree calmly reading a scroll. He had suppressed his chakra so he seemed like a civilian, hoping Shiba wouldn't find him. It was his last day before he could return to full active duty and was thoroughly bored. He would still take the boredom over Shiba.

"She isn't coming back," a female voice sneered. Damn, he had been found. "You should forget about her, she's probably forgotten about you or dead, it's been months," Shiba continued. Itachi chuckled, did she really believe that.

-

Max was sulking at the back of one of the puddle jumpers. Teyla was sat in the co-pilots chair, which was the cause of Max's irritation. She ignored the amazement at the destroyed Hive ships surrounding the planet they were approaching. She was just glad she had been allowed to go with them.

The ship broke through the planets atmosphere. The planet surface looked derelict, no signs of life or colour, just grey as far as the eye could see.

The team was geared up to explore, Max sticking with Ronon, he was much less up tight. McKay had the same idea, only he was sticking with them for protection. He obviously forgot about it when he saw the Ancient control panels. Max wandered around she saw bodies on the floor but left it for the others to point out, she preferred to explore.

"Rho has seen some bodies," Teyla pointed out. Max cursed, why was it Teyla always ruined her fun.

"Can you tell how they died?"

"No, the look like they've been here a while, it's impossible to tell without proper equipment," Max explained in a biting tone, glaring at Teyla who seemed to be oblivious to Max's ire.

"Something killed all of them," Ronon said, finding some more behind a door. Max had been about to sneak of when McKay powered up the console he was at.

"It just hit me, this is an Ancient outpost, why would the wraith attack it?" McKay asked, Max wasn't sure if it was rhetorical but she doubted they wanted any sarcastic responses.

"So, what, a military research facility?" she questioned McKay looked weirdly at her and nodded.

"How did you guess?"

"Intuition, I'm gong to assume it's because of a weapon here that there's a dead fleet on the doorstep of this planet" Max

"We need to get back to Atlantis and talk to Weir"

"Leave me here, I want to explore a bit" Max requested.

"No, if you press one wrong button you could blow up the solar system!" McKay yelled shocking the others.

"I'm not an idiot, I know not to touch things, if only some of your scientist did to. Besides do you really want to come back with all your scientist buddies only to find there are some creatures bent on eating you because this place wasn't checked out first?" Max replied, McKay's face paled.

Sheppard grudgingly agreed but only if Ronon stayed too. It had originally been only if Teyla stayed but both of them had protested, Teyla had a trade to negotiate and Max would end up killing Teyla.

While waiting for the others to return Max and Ronon traded stories about experiences and fights. Max made sure to memorise locations in case she needed to apperate in an emergency. The weapon seemed a bit risky, and they didn't actually know the cause of the people's deaths. Max had managed to miss the episode relevant. She really hoped staying was a good idea. She knew that if she'd gone back she would have been roped into helping Teyla.

-

Kakashi waited for his students to turn up, here he was, being early for once and the rest of his team were being late. He searched for their chakra's. Naruto was getting Ramen, Sai was on top of the Hokage's mountain probably drawing. Sasuke was at Max's house, where Laura also was as Max and Louise both hadn't been there in a while. Kakashi chuckled, Sasuke was going to get teased so much during training.

-

Max watched as the scientists scurried around like worker bees with McKay being the queen bee. Max the paused for a second to laugh at the mental image. She was hiding so she wouldn't be asked to move things around. She liked the sound of a weapon like the one mentioned, the physics side of it was way out of her league. No one was letting her near the controls, as McKay put it "We like living, and I think the inhabitants of this universe like living too. For these reasons you are not to touch anything"

If any one asked her to help she just cited him but she had found hiding easier. Scientist were a pain to argue with. Things simmered down when it came for the test. Max was tense, something was going to go wrong, she knew it. She felt a hand on her shoulder, Rem was floating behind her shaking her head.

"You can't save everyone, sometimes you need to let them go, you've already upset the balance in this world, don't upset it more," Rem told her. Max nodded in understanding, this test would prove fatal to someone. It was irritating to know this, and Max knew she would have to resist interfering. To help she sat in a meditative pose further away from the scientists. She would get yelled at later for not trying to save who ever it was but there were something's she had to accept.

"Rho! We have a problem, can you get here now?" the radio crackled, McKay's voice filtering though.

"I won't make it in time but I'll try" Max answered, she started to head back knowing that she would get part of the blame.

-

Training had finished and Kakashi meandered over to the Hokage's office to see if there were any pending missions. He hadn't checked in a while. The office was unoccupied and something in the desk triggered his senses. Curiously her wandered over to in and took a closer look with his Sharingan, he could see the magic surrounding a piece of paper. He took out the paper and unfolded it. Recognising Max's scrawl and the symbols as a gate address he pieced it together. That's where Max was. He supposed the team had holiday, time for a road trip.

--

Review please, I mean do people still like this? I feel unloved sometimes.


	18. Tabula Rasa and an animagus form

Well I'm getting closer to the end of this part, but don't cry, there will be another one.

--

"Well, that's never happened before as far as I know," Rem said to Max. Said girl was looking at her reflection in surprise.

"Just how many magical people have managed to get hold of a Death note and become an Animagus?"

"None that I know of"

"I really shouldn't be surprised then" Max lamented, it was the story of her life.

"I wonder if people can see you in this form"

"Only one way to find out" Max sighed taking a last look in the mirror. She had discovered a side affect of owning a death note.

Her Animagus form was that of a death god. The only thing actually the same was the colours of her eyes which had become feral looking. Her form had grown more animalistic, sort of like a movie werewolf with silver fur and a skull face. She was hovering above the ground, her first hint of her Death god status. Like the other death gods she had wings that could barely be considered flight worthy, hers didn't seem to fit with the rest of her, they were leathery and skeletal.

She floated through the wall, the door not responding to her. Walking through walls was one of the more _unique_ incidents Max had ever experienced. Like walking through glue.

"It gets easier" Rem assured her. Max shrugged, she could see some marines headed down the corridor, she saw their eyes widen and they raised their guns to shoot at her. She could see their names and some number floating above their heads. It seemed she had Death god eyes as well. She flew back through the wall.

"This is creepy"

"Welcome to my world," Rem sighed.

"Hey that reminds me, do you think I could go to the Death god's world?"

"You could try"

"So, how do you get there?" Max asked sheepishly.

-

Itachi was finally away from the village, he didn't care that it was just an escort mission to Suna. It was away from Shiba and that was all that mattered.

The long trek across the sand left time for his thoughts to wander, something that been a lot happening recently. He was aware enough to know if someone was approaching. He wondered if Max would ever come back, it had been just less than six months since she had become a Sannin and about a month and a half since the rescue. That encounter had been strange. It had also reminded him of his hormones. He was thankful for the mask as his face flushed involuntarily at the memory of Max in a towel

Itachi frowned a bit at the last part of the memory, Max had backed away when someone interrupted, she had before during the Hogwarts mission. It was part of the mystery that Max still held on to.

-

"Well that was a failed experiment" Max groaned. No matter how hard she had tried, the Death god realm was just out of reach. She'd also found that she could be hurt by normal projectile weapons. It still hurt as well, but it healed a lot faster in her death god form. At least energy weapons were harmless to her.

"It's a shame too, you would have been able to return home," Rem added. Max's face darkened, she was starting to feel homesick, brought on by the many times she'd been on missions and wished she had her own team. "If you miss them so much why don't you just dial the gate home?"

"We don't have the power for galaxy to galaxy travel or if we did it would be only just. I'm not going to be that selfish. Knowing my luck as I dial some new tragedy will occur and I will have drained the power needed to survive it"

"So pessimistic, are you really that depressed?"

"Have you ever had hopes that were dashed?"

"I think its time you returned to human form, you're becoming as depressed as a death god," Rem suggested wearily looking at Max who somehow was looking distressed. Even with a canine skull for a head.

Max complied and became human once more. She then tripped over her own feet, she hadn't realised the floating had become so natural so quickly.

"That was creepy, really creepy," Max said thinking back over her actions as a death god.

"Death gods have no way of hiding feelings," Rem explained. "You seemed to have gotten the short end of that stick"

"No kidding" Max grumbled. The only real good thing that came from her new form so far were the death god eyes, being in a different 'phase' enabling her to walk through walls and flying. She would have to experiment later to see if she had any other abilities.

"Rho, there's been some unusual activity around your area, care to explain?" came Weir's voice over her radio which was sat on the bed.

"Just some experimenting, nothing wrong"

"I would appreciate some warning next time, and Beckett wants me to remind you to go get your check up. Now"

"Uh, I thing I left something running, namely me I'll see you guys later" Max answered in her way of warning them not to look for her and expect to find her. She grabbed her scrolls, she needed to get away for a while. Having no clue when she would return meant she would take everything with her. Hopefully Haku would understand. She would leave a note for him.

"What are you running away from this time?" Rem asked.

"I'm not running, I just need a holiday"

"I though that's what this was…"

"Nope, this is a mission, or at least it feels like it sometimes, only as a genin or something"

Rem didn't argue any further with her about it, after the science station incident, Max had gotten chewed out about being 'unavailable' during times she may be needed. Max thought they just wanted to blame the scientist's death on someone. She couldn't really tell them that it was his time to die. From that Max had become bitter towards the rest of the expedition. Ronon didn't blame her, he knew what it was like to be just to late.

-

Laura was puzzled, her latest case was still ongoing, it seemed that just as she got close something would change. It was driving her nuts. There wasn't even anyone to keep her company, Louise was on loan to Suna, Laura took a moment to feel sorry for the poor guy who was escorting her. Max was far away and not been seen for ages. Sasuke was on some mission with the rest of the team and Anko was torturing some kids.

It felt weird having this kind of space, normally there was someone to keep an eye around. Laura realise just how little she did outside work and hanging with close friends. Maybe she could persuade Hinata and Ino to go clubbing. Hinata was dangerously close to become recluse again, all their hard work could come undone.

Maybe while she was at it some rumours would get to Sasuke so he would maybe act on his feelings that he thought he'd hidden. They weren't anything more than close friends at the moment, much to Laura's sadness. When he had been around the house a few nights ago all they had done was snuggle for a bit talking.

-

Louise looked at her ANBU escort, he seemed a little out of it. She recognised Itachi's mask and had figured out the source of his thoughts. The source which was in a different galaxy. Something that neither Laura nor Max knew, was that Louise also watched Stargate SG1 and Atlantis. After hearing about some of the things happening at the SGC she had guessed the most likely place that Max would be. She also knew it was in a different galaxy, it wouldn't be worth telling them only to tell them they wouldn't be able to go anyway.

"You are paying attention to our surroundings, right?" she asked, seeing some figures closing in. She noticed the subtle shift in her guard's stance, he had noticed them too. "Something on your mind, or someone?" Louise could feel the sharp gaze on the back of her neck. "Max will come back when she's able"

"You know something about where she is?" The question may have sounded merely curious but Louise could hear the hopefulness.

"I know many things," Louise said cryptically, it was something all three girls did often, they loved to give half answers. "But this is up to Max," she added to stop him asking of her location.

-

It didn't take long for Max to head back to Atlantis, Rem had informed her that the occupants of the city were infected by a virus. Max wasn't sure if she would be affected but it would be worth a try, especially with her weird immune system. She expected Haku to be fine as well as Teyla and Ronon as they were native to the galaxy. She remembered the episode, Tabula Rasa. Literally 'Blank state', a city wide case of amnesia.

Luckily for her Haku had been operating the gate room waiting for her return, even Max hadn't tried to get through the gate's barrier. Max only then realised Haku would have had been able to see Rem to inform her of the situation. She would have to ask later.

"'Sup Otter?" Max asked brightly, she had perched on the balcony. "How's it going, anyone dead yet?"

"Not good, the marines are stunning the scientist to keep them in the same place. If they get stunned to much it can cause permanent damage. We need to find a cure now"

"Where's McKay?"

"Haven't seen him, he hasn't been rounded up yet" Haku reported. He had a clone in with the scientists to keep an eye on things.

"Have you checked his Lab?" Max asked.

"Oh, right." Haku smiled sheepishly as Max slapped her forehead.

"What about the others?"

"Teyla's in a holding cell, they think she's here to infiltrate the place. Ronon and Sheppard are heading to the mainland to get the plant material for the cure, I think they're having problems, they are way overdue"

"What do you know about this virus?"

"Starts of like the flu, slightly delayed after being infected, about six hours after the flu symptoms appear you'll start getting amnesia"

"I was afraid that might be the case, we have at least six hours to solve this thing before I start to lose my memories. If I do, you need to knock me out or I'll get really paranoid and I may become violent if I see the marines. The plan is to find McKay, spring Teyla, no matter how much I hate to admit it. And also make sure Ronon and Sheppard get back with the plant."

"What are you planning to do?"

"I'll find McKay, and when I start feeling the symptoms I radio call you"

"Ok" The two ninja's split up, to do their tasks. Haku couldn't help but wonder how Max came up with the plan so quickly. It was as if she had known this was coming.

Max was half way to McKay's lab when she started feeling dizzy. She frowned but brushed it off. She assumed it was just her imagination, or the weird meat she'd had on the planet she'd visited. True to her word though she kept Haku informed, it was better to let him know than find out later when she lost her memory.

McKay was proving hard to track down, Max checked his lab, then the mess hall where the others were being kept. He wasn't in either. It didn't help Max would get distracted easily.

When Max finally found McKay her memory had gone. Rem would keep reminding her of things but it was like talking to a person with a very short attention span. The death god had no idea why her memory had vanished faster than the six hours. The virus shouldn't have affected her that fast.

Haku was hunting down Max, he had figured out why Max had been infected, the very thing that got rid of mind altering drugs quickly for her was helping the virus infect her cells at a more rapid rate.

Max naturally had a fast metabolism, all the reactions in her body happened at a faster rate than the average person. When she had become a ninja, she had used her chakra to speed it up some more. The sped up metabolism was helping the virus to spread in her system. Knocking Max out was the best way to slow her metabolism at the moment while they sorted the cure out.

It was easier said than done, finding her wasn't the problem, knocking her out was, Max had been right when she had said she would be paranoid. That means her sense were more acute, similar to a startled animal, and she was ready for fight or flight.

Haku could only think of one thing to get Max to lower her guard, it would take a bit of preparation and he would only have one shot. He opened one of his own scrolls, Max had no idea he had borrowed some of this stuff. While he was tempted to use the positive emotion pheromone what he had in mind was more likely to work.

Max was wandering down a corridor with McKay in tow, both stopped the second a strange fragrance became known. They both inhaled deeply.

"Coffee"

Haku picked that moment to knock Max out. To his surprise it worked, he'd have to talk to Max about that later. He created a few clones to take McKay and Max and with a nod to Rem he shushined away. Looks like he was on his own for this.

He deposited Max off in her room locking the door, if she regained her memories, she would be able to get out. He took McKay to his lab and sent a clone to the jumper bay to wait for Ronon and Sheppard's return. If this didn't work then there would be a problem.

-

Kakashi and team 7.5 sat observing the Beta site, while they were authorised to go through the gate, they wanted to gather some info on how the gate worked first. That way they could get back if the address was wrong. Kakashi looked at he paper, he had cancelled the illusion on it so he wouldn't forget about it. The rest of the team were ready in anticipation, as the saying went: where Max was, trouble would follow.

They trailed to the command centre and handed over their passes and the address. They got a funny look but the glares the marines got from the boys stopped it.

"Are you sure about this?" the guy in charge asked. The serious look in the team's stance gave him his answer.

"Look here, if you don't dial that as soon as possible, there will be problems," Naruto threatened, much to everyone's surprise, he was known for being the 'good cop' of any given situation. The guy hastily nodded and headed to the dialling device, the team were confused by his dubious behaviour, he wasn't expecting anything to happen.

The red button in the centre was pressed down and the marine turned as if to say I told you so when the event horizon formed with its customary whoosh. The man grabbed his radio and pressed the button and hesitated slightly before speaking into it.

"Atlantis? This is Beta base, do you read me?"

"Beta base? You mean the base from Earth? This is Otter from Konoha, there are issues here and the city is under quarantine, don't send anyone through at this time." The marine looked to the ninjas to see if they knew who Otter was. None of team seven had encountered Haku as ANBU so they just shrugged.

"Where's Ookami," Naruto asked. The marine relayed the request.

"She's currently busy. Dial back after 12 hours, by then the issue should be gone and the quarantine should be lifted" Otter replied, the gate shut down before they could ask anything else.

"I guess we'll have to wait 12 hours then," Kakashi commented. The marine had already started dialling Earth to inform them of the new information.

--

If anyone wants to draw pictures of the characters for me send me a link, they would be gratefully received :)

Reviews are always welcome


	19. Sun, Sea and Relaxation

Woah penultimate chapter!

Again I'll ask as not everyone seems to read the bottom of my chapters:

Anyone feel like drawing fanart for me? :)

--

Haku sighed, it had been seven hours since contact with the base, five hours since people had recovered from the virus and three hours since he'd last seen Max.

That's right, Max was gone, no clues and no note. Rem was no where to be seen either, Max had probably asked her to keep quiet. Haku wasn't sure if Max had some how found out about the contact with home, it might have startled her. Alternatively, there was a chance she wanted to go back to what ever she had been doing before she had returned to help with the virus situation.

-

Max was blissfully unaware of the contact that had been made, and nor was she back where she had gone earlier. She was sunning herself, lying on a beach on a planet that just seemed to be one big party to the inhabitants. Rem was consulting with the Death god king about various things, like the reappearance of a dead death god and Max's Animagus form, she would probably be a while. Max had also found out something interesting.

Wraith didn't have the ability to metabolise alcohol fermented from coconut milk. If there was coconut alcohol in a human's system they couldn't feed from them without killing themselves from it. Coconuts were abundant on the planet. Hence why the planet was untouched by wraith hands.

Some preteen girls were putting coloured wooden beads in her hair and making little braids. They had well watered coconut alcohol to drink and would only be drinking it until they got to 20 years old. Max had lied about her age to get some of the strong stuff. The people were really hospitable, the only reason no one knew about them was the gate was on the other side of the planet so no one really knew about the people.

"Hey chibi's, you done yet" Max asked, each of the girls tugged their respective braid indicating they were. "Cool, so, swimming next?" The girls squealed in excitement. The adults didn't pay much attention to the kids so the older kids would look after the younger ones. Max was trying to break that without stirring the waters too much.

The water was nice and cool on Max's skin as she floated on her back, she held a coconut shell with her drink in a hand. She was keeping a general eye on the girls who were splashing about nearby. There weren't many water based dangers to look out for but it paid to be cautious.

She felt some people approaching and peeled open an eye, some of the older boys were wading towards them. Max thought up some reasons why, let see: to steal her drink, annoy the girls, ask to play with them or hit on her. She'd already declined offers to play their version of volleyball earlier. They weren't exactly subtle with their staring.

She could feel one of them swimming underneath, they were probably going to try to catch her unaware and grab her drink or her ankle. She hid a smirk as she subtle manipulated the current using her chakra to lead the swimming kid off course.

She stood up in the water to face the approaching kids, the girls had moved out of the boy's path.

"Rho? The adults want to talk to you"

"Ok, I assume you want to escort me there" Max said, the looks on their faces gave her the answer. "Chibi's, we're heading back to the shore" she called and started wading back, cutting through the water faster than the others could manage. She had been tempted to simple run on the water but she didn't want to scare the people.

She waited at the shore line for the others to get back, counting them as they emerged. Funny, she could have sworn there was one more girl.

"Where's Jessa?" she asked, calmly, it wouldn't do to panic them.

"I think she was behind us"

"I'll get her" Max said running back to the water and diving in as soon as it was safe. It wasn't too hard to locate the girl, FA had been derived from bat's sight but also from submarine sonar.

Once they were all safely on the beach the boys led Max to where the adults were sitting around a fire.

"Rho, we've been discussing your… honoured presence here. As you are aware of the separation between the ages it is for a reason. We would like you to respect that separation and stay with those your own age"

"With all due respect, I feel I can teach the younger more than the older would learn"

"And what have you taught them thus far?"

"Stories. Stories and teamwork, these two things are important while the mind is young, their imagination is much wilder, and less limited. I may have also taught some of them how to surf"

-

The twelve hours had passed and so team 7.5 were standing ready to move out with the relief team from earth. There was tension in the air as the gate was dialled. The blue event horizon formed and after a brief radio conversation they stepped though the gate.

They were amazed by the city, they had never seen anything like it. The architecture was like nothing in the hidden continents.

"You four must be from Konoha, Otter is on his way to brief you," a woman addressed them, from the way she held herself she was obviously the leader of the expedition. It was more obvious when she went over to the others who had come through the gate and was directing the placement of supplies.

"Team seven." Said team turned to see who they could only assume was Otter from the mask. The ANBU removed his mask to reveal his identity, he was then hugged by Naruto.

"Hak-" A hand was slapped over Naruto's mouth.

"It's Otter here," Haku interrupted.

"Where is Ma-Wolf" Kakashi caught himself before her said Max's name. If Haku was going by codename Max probably was as well.

"Uh, well, I have no idea, she kinda disappeared on me, and she goes by Rho here," Haku said sheepishly, most of the team looked at him incredulously.

"How long?" Kakashi asked.

"Eight hours, maybe less. It's not the first time she's disappeared, she just has weird timing, at least normally she has the decency to leave a note"

-

Max was back to sunning herself on the beach, the civilisation only got a few hours of darkness due to its placement near the equator of the planet. She was getting a great tan from this place and there hadn't been an emergency… well ever. Hakuna matata. No worries.

Max started to curse as Hakuna matata got stuck in her head.

"What does 'shit' mean?" asked an innocent voice beside her. Max had to restrain from cursing some more. She knew that this probably wouldn't end well if she verbalised her thoughts. It was probably time to move on before Jessa asked the adults about the word.

-

Louise was having a great time in Suna, it was nice to find someone as crazy as she was and the Kazekage was her equal in that respect. She spent her time switching between interrogating people and hanging out with Gaara. It was nice to have a change of scenery but the civilians did give her a wide berth. Gaara would be sending his sister to escort her back to ensure the highest protection possible as Itachi had needed to return.

-

Max stood on a new planet by the gate and placed the crate of coconut alcohol on a scroll to seal it, she didn't want to lug it around where ever she was now.

"Whatcha doing Rho?" Max's head snapped up and she groaned. She was on the kiddie planet and standing in front of her was the girl she had almost made cry.

"How do you still remember me?"

"How hard is it to remember a mask?"

"Touché." Max finished sealing the crate and put the scroll in her pocket.

"What was in there?"

"Stop asking questions, I'm not going to answer them," Max snapped. That had been the great thing about the beach planet, they didn't ask too many inane questions. The fact most of them had alcohol in their system had nothing to do with the lack of questions. Maybe she could try it though.

"So, why are you back?"

"Do you always ask questions?" Max sighed exasperatedly.

"Yes." Max groaned again, this girl reminded her of her younger days.

"…I really don't like you"

"Come to the village, they would like to see you again"

"That's not something I hear everyday" Max muttered as she followed the girl to the village. It hadn't changed that much.

"Ah Rho, Doctor McKay was just here, did he forget something?"

"No I wasn't aware that he'd been here, I'm working alone for a while, taking a break," Max explained.

"I see, would you care to stay for lunch?"

"I really should get moving, there's probably something going wrong in the city, but I should eat first I suppose or Beckett will have my hide." Especially as she hadn't eaten that much on the beach planet, she wasn't that fond of seafood other than fish. Most of the food had contained some sort of weird shellfish, hence why she hadn't eaten it. She had eaten some of her sealed food but only in the moments she had been alone.

-

Tsunade was relaxing in the hot springs, she had requested that Jiraiya go to mist to check out some rumours so she hoped the springs were safe from perverts. If she caught someone then no force in the world would stop her from maiming them.

She could feel something, in her bones, something was coming, something that would keep her best shinobi busy for a while. Call it intuition.

-

Max ended up staying for a few hours before deciding to check in with Atlantis. Haku was probably annoyed with her, she was going to leave a note but had ultimately forgotten.

She headed back to the gate escorted by the girl, she never had bothered learning names, she hadn't even thought she would return to this planet.

"Can I have some more of that coffee stuff?"

"No"

"Please?" Oh great she was pouting now, next she would probably start to cry.

"Hell no"

"Why not?" Yup, Max could see tears. She sighed and turned to face the girl.

"If you drink to much you'll end up staying that height forever"

"Is that why you're so short?" Max barely restrained a growl. She wasn't short, she just seemed older than she was so people assumed she was short.

"I think I can go the rest of the way _on my own_" Max hissed, subtly making the eye holes of her mask glow, the girl 'eep'ed and ran back to the village. Max then took to the trees and got to the gate a lot quicker than she would have otherwise.

She hesitated at the dialling device, did she really want to face the music now? She could pick any planet to go to and they wouldn't be able to follow. But she was getting sick of running, she wanted to go home, back to the leaf village and see everyone.

One more planet wouldn't hurt though. She closed her eyes and was about to start dialling randomly when she reacted to grab an arrow that was inches from her spine.

"Who the hell shot me with an arrow?!" Max fumed looking around wildly, using FA to enhance her search.

"I apologise, I thought you were a threat." Ah one of the villagers.

"I was going home! Dialling the gate and everything. How did you make that out as threatening?" Max asked with much frustration evident in her voice.

"You could have been asking for help to invade after finding our weaknesses"

"Paranoid much? You know what, screw you, I'm going home, and next time you fire an arrow at me it will become embedded in your arse," Max threatened, she pushed the familiar buttons for Atlantis.

"Atlantis this is Rho, can you deactivate the shield so I can return?"

"Can you verify your identity?" Weir asked.

"Get Otter to do it when I get there"

"Shield's deactivated, you have some visitors here" Weir informed her seconds before she stepped though so there was no way for her to back out.

--

I have one more chapter until part four, as with last time I will post the last chapter of three the same time as I post the first chapter of part four.

Review please


	20. Hello, Goodbye, See you later

I'm sad to say this is the last chapter, of this part anyway, by the time you've read this chapter the new story should be up.

Again, a call for any artists among you, feel free to draw any fanart, send me a link to it and I'll post it on my profile.

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Max had taken three steps into the city when she found herself flying across the room. It took a few second to register what had happened and manoeuvre herself to stick to the wall with her feet. The beads in her hair collided noisily as Max stood parallel to the ground.

Haku had punched her, he had actually punched her. Haku never punched anyone. Filled them with sebon until they resembled a pin cushion sure, but never punched.

"You could have left a note!" Haku yelled.

"I forgot"

"Ma-Rho!" Max looked visibly startled at that, someone had almost slipped up with her name, the voice sounded familiar as well. She looked around and gasped.

"Guys! What… How? Screw it, we need to talk in private somewhere. Weir, I'll need to talk to you at some point as well." Max, team seven and Haku all disappeared to beside the ice rink. Max soon found herself enveloped in a hug from Naruto and a slightly reluctant Sasuke.

"How?"

"We found your note, charms are seen through if you have the eyes for it," Kakashi explained.

"That explains how you found out where I was but there's the power issue, the hidden continent is in a different galaxy"

"Well actually it's on the edge of both so easy to get to from both Earth and Atlantis"

"That means I have no excuse of not visiting more then," Max sighed. Haku turned to her.

"Weir's recommended sending you home. She said you're becoming too unpredictable to be allowed to stay," Haku admitted.

"Fine, I know when I've overstayed my welcome. Are you planning on staying?" Haku nodded, he'd been working with Beckett and learning about Earth medicine and wanted to continue. "And the rest of you?"

"We're going back and taking you with us, we only got a day off and it's almost up," Sasuke informed her in a no nonsense way. Max idly wondered if he had hooked up with Laura yet.

"I need to talk to Weir then give Beckett something with some instructions then I'll go. Once I'm done I'll go home"

"Will you?" Naruto asked looking at Max blankly, he wasn't sure whether to believe her, she had disappeared without a word before.

"I do a lot of things but I don't go against my word. I _will_ be back in Konoha within the next twenty four hours"

"You guy head to the main room I'll join you in a second," Kakashi ordered, the boys left, Haku also got the hint and left. "So Max, how long did the hicky last?"

"How did you see that, you were miles away?!"

"It was pretty noticeable. I'm so proud, my little team mate's growing up" Kakashi cooed, messing up Max's hair.

"If you keep this up I will remove your balls with a rusted spoon," Max threatened in an eerily calm voice. Kakashi backed away slightly.

"Are you feeling better after your 'holiday'?"

"I suppose, I won't know until I get back, while I said I would be back in twenty four hours I didn't mention how long I would stay for," Max said, eventually people would learn she always left a loophole in her word in case she needed to back out.

"You should talk to someone about what happened," Kakashi told her seriously. "If you're reluctant to even go home then something's defiantly wrong"

"I'm not reluctant, I just want to be sure if I go back I will be able to leave again afterwards"

"That's a risk you should take,"

"I know," Max agreed. She reached for a scroll and handed it over to Kakashi. "Before I change my mind take this, I want that back so I'll have to go home to get it"

"What's in here?"

"I want that back so I'm not saying, it is blood encoded though so don't even try looking. I'll see you within twenty four hours," Max finished before shushining in the direction of the infirmary. She didn't appear directly inside, she didn't want to startle anyone in the middle of something important.

She was delayed slightly by Sai, she had carefully avoided talking directly to him hoping to avoid confrontation with him around the team.

"I didn't expect to see you again, let alone find you on a team," Max mused.

"I could say the same to you, Scythe."

"I haven't used that name in a while"

"How long were you in Roots for exactly? I've only heard rumours" Sai asked, cocking his head slightly.

"That's all anyone hears. Listen here. Not many people know about my short stint with Roots and I intend to keep it that way. Understood?" Max growled dangerously. Sai got the hint and mimed zipping his lips, Max sighed, she needed to stop teaching people Earth behaviours by accident. Sai shushined to the gate room to meet with the rest of the team ready to leave.

Walking in the door she was immediately pounced on by Doctor Beckett.

"You finally turned up for a check up!"

"Not really I acquired something on my travels that you might be interested in" Max said unsealing the crate of coconut booze. She took out a few bottles and put them on a table the resealed the remaining bottles she scribbled the gate address for the beach planet on one of them. Beckett took the cork out of one and sniffed it testily.

"Alcohol, strong, coconut smell," he described. "Why are you giving me this?"

"On the planet I got this from the local were completely untouched by wraith. From what I deciphered from the folklore the wraith can't get rid of the alcohol, specifically this type." Max explained, she could see Beckett thinking as he took another sniff.

"Why doesn't everyone know about this?"

"The village is on the other side of the planet to the Stargate, no one explored far enough before"

"And you did?"

"I was bored, I wanted to see if the beach was any better further away"

"I'll have to analyse this, but it can wait until after your examination" Max figured she was caught, she was not going to escape this one.

"I'll only stay if you can make this quick I have a time limit and I still need to talk to Weir about several things"

"I heard she wanted you out of this city, some of the scientists love their gossip"

"I heard you were teaching Otter, this was directly from the source though. I figured I would outstay my welcome at some point though. It's too… restrictive here"

"I thought you felt like that, no one else managed to avoid a check up for as long as you"

"I've had practice, anyway, I have people to annoy before I leave, I wish you luck with any future endeavours you make"

"You too"

Max walked out of the infirmary before shushining to Weir's office, no warning was given this time.

"Ah, Rho, just the girl I was planning to talk t-"

"I know you want me gone, I'll be out of your hair soon. Just so you know; Beckett has some important research to do so try not to send any of you teams on a dangerous mission until he's done, just because you're evicting me doesn't mean I'm going to stay gone, so I will come back and raise hell if he gets disturbed"

"Are you finished?" Weir asked, raising an eyebrow at Max's tirade.

"No but I'll let you speak"

"So far you've missed all of the psychiatric exams you were supposed to attend, so we can't guarantee your sanity." Max snorted at that which Weir ignored. "You disobey orders and ignore warnings, you have no regard for your own life or seemingly others"

"Wait one second. I do regard other's lives."

"That scientist's death-"

"-was not my fault, I had no way of safely getting there and out with the scientist in tow, while guaranteeing both of our safety. Besides, if I hadn't been there at all who would you have blamed then, Sheppard because he didn't risk his life in an unknown situation?" Max ranted, she was seriously close to loosing her cool demeanour.

"You can teleport though, he can't"

"I can't teleport with people, or at least I didn't want to risk it as I haven't attempted multiple people teleport"

"The rest of the reasons still stand though"

"I don't disobey orders, I circumvent them, normally with good reason. Warnings are just that, warnings. When ever I risk my life I always have a back up plan. As for sanity, I've never been sane but my sanity has never been an issue."

"Still, I can't risk a wild card here at the moment" Weir signalling that this was not up for debate.

"And I can't stay in a place where I have to obey orders that don't stretch my potential. It's like getting the latest computer and only playing solitaire on it. If you would just authorise me to go to Earth then I'll get out of your hair"

"I thought you were heading home"

"I still have time, I have some things to get," 'booze, booze and more booze' Max added silently. She had a lot of things to make up to people booze would make it easier. Especially as a distraction when she wanted to make a quick getaway. She put her mask back on, she liked it and the beads in her hair went well with it.

"Welcome back to Earth Rho"

"I would say it's good to be back but I would be lying" Max muttered as she headed to the briefing room.

"Ok, I'm going to be on earth for a couple of hours, can I borrow a jeep" she asked General Landry, she hadn't formally met the man but she really hoped he knew of her reputation.

"I have a feeling you would take one anyway, there will be one waiting for you at the gates"

"So they did tell you about me"

"You do have quite the reputation," Landry admitted.

"-and the less time I spend on your base the less of a nonsense I will be. Figured that out huh? I'll go and get the jeep"

A jeep ride to the nearest decent liquor store took about half an hour. Hengeing into an obviously twenty five year old took a few seconds. Gathering the different types of alcohol she needed to stock up on took about ten minutes.

Being recognised from across the car park after she had safely stored her supply and released the Henge ruined her plans the second her name was called.

"Max!"

"Draco? What are you doing here?"

"I could ask the same thing of you," was the dry retort.

"I'm working," Max replied shrugging, Draco looked at her sceptically.

"Outside a liquor store?"

"Duh, what do you expect, I did turn up drunk to the third task"

"I heard about that," Draco said smirking a bit. Max remembered he hadn't been there, he'd been in Japan at school.

"So it wasn't my best plan, it worked though"

"You planed it?" Draco exclaimed rather sceptically.

"Not all of it, I didn't plan on getting captured but everything turned out well." Max glanced at the phone sitting on her passenger sea "I should go now, I have places to be, I'll probably see you again at some point, say hi to the others for me"

With a wave they both departed in there separate ways. The drive back to the SGC was as boring as the drive to the store. She had put the radio on at full blast, drumming on the steering wheel.

She stood nervously as the gate dialled home, the noise was a lot more from this gate than the one in Atlantis. Each symbol being another step closer to getting home. She idly wondered how long she could be in the village before being noticed. It depended when she crashed really. She could feel the sleep deprivation effects creeping up on her and planned to be back before she slept.

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